#Types of cluster sampling

[marketxcel]

Cluster Sampling: Types, Advantages, Limitations, and Examples

Explore the various types, advantages, limitations, and real-world examples of cluster sampling in our informative blog. Learn how this sampling method can help researchers gather data efficiently and effectively for insightful analysis.

[xyymath]

📊 The Mathematics of Understanding Society: Statistics in Social Sciences

1. Reliability: Quantifying Consistency

Reliability ensures that statistical results are consistent across time and methods. It is measured through techniques like:

Test-Retest Reliability: Same participants, repeated measures.

Inter-Rater Reliability: Agreement between multiple observers.

Internal Consistency: Correlation of test items, often measured using Cronbach’s Alpha.

Formula for internal consistency:

where N is the number of items, cbar is the average covariance between item pairs, and v is the total item variance.

2. Validity: Ensuring Relevance

Validity measures whether data reflects the intended concept. Types include:

Construct Validity: Evaluates how well a test aligns with theoretical concepts.

Criterion Validity: Measures correlation with related, independent outcomes.

Content Validity: Assesses if the test covers the full scope of the concept.

3. Sampling Theory: Representing Populations

In statistics, sampling bridges finite data and infinite populations. Randomized methods minimize bias, while stratified or cluster sampling improves efficiency. The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) guarantees that sampling distributions approximate normality for large sample sizes.

where SE is the standard error, sigma is the population standard deviation, and n is the sample size

4. Minimizing Bias

Bias skews results, reducing reliability and validity. Statistical techniques such as blind sampling, control groups, and adjustments for confounders mitigate these effects. Weighted averages or regression adjustments help correct sampling bias.

5. Significance Testing: Inference in Social Sciences

Statistical tests like t-tests and ANOVA assess relationships in data. P-values determine significance, while effect sizes (e.g., Cohen’s dbar) quantify practical importance.

Example: For comparing group means, the test statistic t is:

where Xbar is the sample mean, s^2 the variance, and n the sample size.

6. Predictive Modeling

Social scientists employ regression models for predictions, such as linear regression:

where β0 is the intercept, β1 the slope, and ϵ the error term.

7. Ethics and Transparency

Statistical transparency is non-negotiable. Misinterpretation or manipulation (e.g., p-hacking) compromises the integrity of findings. Open data and replication strengthen credibility.

"It's easy to lie with statistics. It's hard to tell the truth without statistics"  Darrell Huff

References : (and further reading material)

source one

source two

source three

[sakarrie-creates]

Here’s my 2024 Art Summary, terribly late as usual! We’re back to including some black and white in this year and my months were very clustered, but all things considered I was actually surprised I ended up with as many decent samples for the collage as I did. I was kinda expecting them all to be messy sketches this year lol.

Just like with my writing summary, this year the questions are a bit abridged since I didn’t do a ton of art. That said, I’m still a rambler haha, so the reflection questions are answered up the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to use it!

What events did you participate in (with art)?Player Appreciation Week (old art), Fandom Trumps Hate (offered), CS Case Files Zine (comic!). Not really the type of art this summary is for, but I also created my first cosplay for RCCC!

What was your biggest challenge this year? Definitely motivation. Last year was a creative slump with a lot going on mentally making stuff hard. Mostly in start up energy, since once I got going, things seemed to go alright.

Did you try anything new this year? I got into a comic zine, which was new and exciting! My original plan was far too long for the creation period, though, so I spent a ton of time trying to widdle it down to 3 pages. I also did super messy spot art sketches for a friend’s fic, which ended up being a lot of fun! I also took some screenshots and then drew other characters into the show, somewhat trying to match the show’s style, which was definitely interesting.

Where do you think you most improved? I’m going to go with rendering again! I really love playing with color and lighting, and several of my collage pieces this year were just adding rendering to old pieces. I have a lot more confidence with it now, though I still sometimes feel like my pieces don’t end up as dynamic as I’d like. I also did a lot better at following inspiration and not being as perfectionistic this year.

What are you most proud of? I’m really proud of getting into a comic zine, even though it likely wasn’t that competitive. The fact that I got in for comics despite never having done art for a zine before is crazy to me! I was a pinch hitter, so I wasn’t originally selected, but I’m still honored I got picked eventually. I also am really proud of the August fully rendered piece of Player screaming. I did that one in almost one sitting, probably around 4ish hours, and it was one of my first times doing full color/rendering without cleaning the sketch much at all. Overall, I was very excited at how well it turned out and I feel like the messy emotions really come across!

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals?Shoutout to past Sakarrie for giving me a straight bullet point list. MUCH easier to work with lol.

2024 Goals Met:  -Number One Priority: Create for me and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music       2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail       3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin

The ones that don’t have strikethrough are a bit of a stretch, but I’m gonna give them to myself. While I haven’t added more pieces with backgrounds and need to reorganize my zine portfolio, it is in a decent place where I feel like I can use it and it will accurately represent my best work. I also didn’t really purposefully experiment with rendering or brushes, but it did happen naturally a little, so giving that to myself too. As for the ONE of the following list, I actually did digitize my 30 minutes thumbnails! It’s just not to music, so doesn’t count. Also holy dang, last year Sakarrie was ambitious with the proposal of manufacturing a pin haha.

2024 Goals NOT Met:-Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small

Yeah, these all I absolutely failed with. Oops. Probably gonna be using a fair few of these as my new goals haha.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! I think I want my main focus to be to try to draw more frequently. I’ve found that so much of what prevents me from drawing is startup energy, and once I actually get going, it all comes much easier. 

Specific goals: -Organize a go-to zine portfolio for comics, merch, page art, and spot art applications -Try to draw every month (even the tiniest phone doodle counts) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November?) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 5 times throughout the year) and maybe look into Cara or whatever the non-instagram art app is. -Experiment more with drawing in sketchy art style with full color/rendering -Experiment more with screenshot redraw/character replacements -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes put to music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics       4. Participate in an event with art       5. Draw and post for a new/niche fandom (Infinity Train, Sym-Biotic Titan, Irondad, The Flash, etc)

Overall, how’d the year go? Better than I expected when I first started pulling up my art haha. I didn’t push myself on anything but the CS comic, and that was pretty early on in the year. I also did a fair few doodle/sketch projects and followed the muse when it wanted to do rendering without drawing.

[labyrinthinesyndicatex]

CLOSED STARTER

LOCATION: spring wine & food festival FOR: @ishikaxmehra

Gavin felt Ishika's hand in his, small and warm against his palm. He never thought he'd be the type of guy strolling through a spring festival holding hands with anyone, yet here they were, moving through the bustling crowd together. The air around them filled with scents that made his stomach rumble - smoky barbecue, sweet pastries, and the slightly bitter notes of coffee from somewhere nearby. White tents created a maze around them, each one housing vendors with elaborate displays of food and drink. Strings of lights hung overhead, waiting for sunset when they'd transform the space into something almost magical. He'd spent the last few years of his life mostly alone, making excuses about crowds and noise when friends invited him places. But Ishika had a way of pushing past his defenses, rolling her eyes at his sarcasm until he finally gave in. Maybe that's why he found himself actually enjoying the press of strangers and the sensory overload of the festival. Music drifted over from a small stage where a woman with an acoustic guitar played something folky and pleasant. Groups of people clustered around food stands, laughing and talking over the music. A kid ran past with an ice cream cone threatening to topple, parent hurrying behind. Somewhere to their right, a wine vendor was explaining the difference between two nearly identical glasses of red liquid to an attentive audience. For once, Gavin wasn't thinking about tomorrow or yesterday or anything beyond this moment.

"So this is what normal people do on weekends," he said, watching an elderly couple sharing a plate of something that smelled amazing. "Stand in lines for overpriced food samples and pretend to know anything about wine regions." He squeezed her hand gently, still surprised by how right it felt. "My college experiences with festivals were mostly about finding the cheapest way to get drunk while listening to bands I pretended to like." He grinned at the memory. "Though I did once win a pie-eating contest. Don't look so shocked ... I can be competitive when properly motivated." Their path took them past a stand selling miniature waffles topped with fresh berries and cream. His stomach growled audibly. "I haven't had a proper meal all day. Been saving room for whatever caught my eye here ... which is pretty much everything." He gestured vaguely at the array of food options surrounding them. "What do you want to try first? Those waffle things look pretty incredible. Or maybe we should start with something savory? I'm game for anything as long as the line isn't too crazy."

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Astronomers discover first pairs of white dwarf and main sequence stars in clusters, shining new light on stellar evolution

Astronomers at the University of Toronto (U of T) have discovered the first pairs of white dwarf and main sequence stars – “dead” remnants and "living" stars – in young star clusters. Described in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, this breakthrough offers new insights on an extreme phase of stellar evolution, and one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics.

Scientists can now begin to bridge the gap between the earliest and final stages of binary star systems – two stars that orbit a shared center of gravity – to further our understanding of how stars form, how galaxies evolve, and how most elements on the periodic table were created. This discovery could also help explain cosmic events like supernova explosions and gravitational waves, since binaries containing one or more of these compact dead stars are thought to be the origin of such phenomena.

Most stars exist in binary systems. In fact, nearly half of all stars similar to our sun have at least one companion star. These paired stars usually differ in size, with one star often being more massive than the other. Though one might be tempted to assume that these stars evolve at the same rate, more massive stars tend to live shorter lives and go through the stages of stellar evolution much faster than their lower mass companions.

In the stage where a star approaches the end of its life, it will expand to hundreds or thousands of times its original size during what we call the red giant or asymptotic giant branch phases. In close binary systems, this expansion is so dramatic that the dying star's outer layers can sometimes completely engulf its companion. Astronomers refer to this as the common envelope phase, as both stars become wrapped in the same material.

The common envelope phase remains one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics. Scientists have struggled to understand how stars spiraling together during this critical period affects the stars’ subsequent evolution. This new research may solve this enigma.

Remnants left behind after stars die are compact objects called white dwarfs. Finding these post-common envelope systems that contain both a “dead” stellar remnant and "living" star – otherwise known as white dwarf-main sequence binaries – provides a unique way to investigate this extreme phase of stellar evolution.

“Binary stars play a huge role in our universe,” says lead author Steffani Grondin, a graduate student in the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy & Astrophysics at U of T. “This observational sample marks a key first step in allowing us to trace the full life cycles of binaries and will hopefully allow us to constrain the most mysterious phase of stellar evolution.”

The researchers used machine learning to analyze data from three major sources: the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission – a space telescope that has studied over a billion stars in our galaxy – along with observations from the 2MASS and Pan-STARRS1 surveys. This combined data set enabled the team to search for new binaries in clusters with characteristics resembling those of known white dwarf-main sequence pairs.

Even though these types of binary systems should be very common, they have been tricky to find, with only two candidates confirmed within clusters prior to this research. This research has the potential to increase that number to 52 binaries across 38 star clusters. Since the stars in these clusters are thought to have all formed at the same time, finding these binaries in open star clusters allows astronomers to constrain the age of the systems and to trace their full evolution from before the common envelope conditions to the observed binaries in their post-common envelope phase.

"The use of machine learning helped us to identify clear signatures for these unique systems that we weren't able to easily identify with just a few datapoints alone,” says co-author Joshua Speagle, a professor in the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy & Astrophysics and Department of Statistical Sciences at U of T. “It also allowed us to automate our search across hundreds of clusters, a task that would have been impossible if we were trying to identify these systems manually."

 “It really points out how much in our universe is hiding in plain sight – still waiting to be found,” says co-author Maria Drout, also a professor in the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy & Astrophysics at U of T. “While there are many examples of this type of binary system, very few have the age constraints necessary to fully map their evolutionary history. While there is plenty of work left to confirm and fully characterize these systems, these results will have implications across multiple areas of astrophysics.”

Binaries containing compact objects are also the progenitors for an extreme stellar explosion called a Type Ia supernova and the sort of merger that causes gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime that can be detected by instruments such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).  As the team uses data from the Gemini, Keck and Magellan Telescopes to confirm and measure the properties of these binaries, this catalogue will ultimately shed light on the many elusive transient phenomena in our universe.

Contributing institutions include the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Department for Statistical Sciences, and the Data Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto, as well as the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Department of Astronomy & The Institute for Astrophysical Research at Boston University, and the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.

About the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto is an endowed research institute with over 80 faculty, postdocs, students, and staff, dedicated to innovative technology, groundbreaking research, world-class training, and public engagement.

The research themes of its faculty and Dunlap Fellows span the Universe and include: optical, infrared and radio instrumentation, Dark Energy, large-scale structure, the Cosmic Microwave Background, the interstellar medium, galaxy evolution, cosmic magnetism and time-domain science.

IMAGE: This image from the ALMA telescope shows star system HD101584 and the complex gas clouds surrounding the binary. It is the result of a pair of stars sharing a common outer layer during their last moments. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al. Acknowledgement: Robert Cumming.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bodywork often switches between "global" and "local" techniques to achieve its goals. We must do the same when caring for our society. The Atlantic recently had two articles about a "dark triad", one of individual personality traits, and one applied to national politics. They are remarkably co-related to a healthy global/local strategy for all.

Advice on how to identify and avoid Dark Triads in local (individual) relationships:

"The traits to look for are self-importance, a sense of entitlement, vanity, a victim mentality, a tendency to bend the truth or even openly lie, manipulativeness, grandiosity, a lack of remorse, and an absence of empathy. Probe for these characteristics particularly when on first dates and in job interviews." [Know that these traits are most prevalent in political and entertainment fields, with a healthy scattering of CEOs. Dark triad traits are least prevalent in professions that involve caring for other people.]

From the global (national) perspective:

"The U.K. is now an object lesson for other countries dealing with a dark triad of deindustrialization, degrowth, and denigration of foreigners. Having offshored industry in favor of finance, its economy wasn’t resilient.

The British government pursued a policy of austerity, fretting about debt rather than productivity or aggregate demand. In the past 30 years, the British economy chose finance over industry, Britain’s government chose austerity over investment, and British voters chose a closed and poorer economy over an open and richer one. The predictable results are falling wages and stunningly low productivity growth.

The resulting erosion in living standards made the public desperate for something to blame. Blame-seeking conservatives spotted bogeymen abroad. Brexit cut off the economy from further growth and set the stage for a rolling political circus."

"The U.S. has a different menu of problems from the U.K.’s. But here too, politicians are navigating an industrial sector in structural decline, a political left that is often skeptical about the virtues of economic growth, and a political right that is organized in part around hating foreigners. Enemies of progress can criticize the legacy of industrialization, productivity, and globalization. But the U.K. shows us what can happen when a rich country seems to reject all three. Rather than transforming into some post-economic Eden of good vibes, it becomes bitter, flailing, and nonsensical."

And finally, some ways to turn it around. From the individual article:

"The characteristics of a Light Triad include faith in humanity (trusting in people’s fundamental goodness), humanism (believing in the dignity and worth of each person), and a Kantian adherence to the idea of universal moral law (in this context, refusing to objectify or instrumentalize others). Compared with the 7 percent that are dark, Kaufman finds that fully 50 percent of his international population sample qualify as Light Triads, and that the average person has more light than dark personality traits."

I believe Joe Biden and Kamala Harris exemplify the Light Triad traits far more than any of the Republican politicians, who all seem to cluster their policies around the Dark Triad traits, both individual and nationalistic.

"The Sociopaths Among Us—And How to Avoid Them" By Arthur C. Brooks

"You’re bound to come across the “Dark Triad” type of malignant narcissists in life—and they can be superficially appealing. Better to look for their exact opposite."

And

"How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe"

By Derek Thompson

"Britain chose finance over industry, austerity over investment, and a closed economy over openness to the world."

(Thanks Barbara Sharp)

[duckapus]

The Syndicate: MRU Edition

I said the Nicktoons games are canon to the MRU version of Fairly Oddparents and I meant it. And, given that Timmy now has powerful new allies and an entirely new type of multiverse lies before them, Crocker proposes to the rest of the Syndicate that they recruit some villains from these new worlds, as well as bring some villains from their own universes and the Nickverse into the fold.

The O.G.s

Professor Finbarr Calamitous

Vlad Masters/Plasmius

Denzel Q. Crocker

Sheldon Plankton

Karen Plankton

Beautiful Gorgeous

Tlaloc the Shaman

Nicolai Technus

Dib Membrane

Nicktoons Villains

Jimmy Neutron

King Goobot (+ Yolkians in general)

The Junkman

Eustace Strych

Grandma Taters

Baby Eddy Neutron

Dorkus Aurelius (I know he's from Planet Sheen it's in the same universe leave me alone)

Fairly Oddparents

Dark Laser

Foop (+Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda when they find out)

Vicky (sort of)

The Nega Chin

Danny Phantom (note: all of these are on a scheme-by-scheme Basis, as Vlad and Technus are not on good enough terms with other ghosts to do long-term team-ups)

Skulker the Hunter

Ember McLain

Johny 13, Kitty, & Shadow

Warden Walker

Desiree

Penelope Spectra & Bertrand

Fright Knight

Spongebob Squarepants

Probably a few of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's many, many archenemies.

Other Nick Shows

Queen Vexus (+Cluster Loyalists) (My Life as a Teenage Robot)

Kilgore (MLaaTR)

...there should probably be some El Tigre villains on here but honestly I don't know enough about the show to know who would work with these guys

Doctor Blowhole (Penguins of Madagascar)

Hypno-Potamus & Warren Stone (Rise of the TMNT)

Skrawl (ChalkZone)

Verminious Snaptrap (+D.O.O.M.) (T.U.F.F. Puppy)

Swiper (Dora the Explorer) (This is a meme-fueled multiverse he totally counts)

Tak and Zim don't get any new villains because Tak doesn't have any other villains worth a damn and all of Zim's enemies are either also Dib's enemies or have never met him but probably would be his enemies if they did.

MRU Multiverse

Master Kohga The local version, not the one that's currently Director K.

Ganon The version from the 80's cartoon, since he's both Not Currently Dead and has the right personality to work with these weirdos.

Vaati

Chancellor Cole That one leprechaun-looking dude from Spirit Tracks.

Tingle We don't know why he's here. He shouldn't be here. We don't want him here. Here he is anyway.

Lady Maud From Triforce Heroes.

Professor Incisor The mad scientist who created the Hamtors in an attempt to make his own personal army to take over the world with. Instead, Doc led an uprising, and the two are now rivals in World Domination.

Queen Lokoko Of course she'd be here.

...Janitor of Heart doesn't have any reoccurring villains yet apart from The Stain, and that's really more of a corruptive mystical force than an actual sentient being. The Syndicate could probably acquire a sample and study it to see if they can harness its power but that's about it.

[marta-bee]

As you might have guessed from the quotes, I’ve been reading Good Omens again. I was all prepared to be uncomfortable with this par. Crowley was about to turn paintball guns into gun-guns, and I was sure after all the mass shootings America has seen since the twelve or so years since I last read it, that part would just hit differently.

I wasn’t wrong, though I’d forgotten how funny and delightfully ‘90s-ish the corporate warfare was. Honestly I was laughing too hard at all the humor around the violence to notice. I can’t recommend it enough, if you’re old enough to remember why Dilbert was funny once upon a time, you really should give this bit a read. A sample:

The contingent from Financial Planning were lying flat on their faces in what had once been the haha, although they weren't very amused.

"I always said you couldn't trust those people from Purchasing," said the Deputy Financial Manager. "The bastards."

A shot pinged off the wall above him.

He crawled hurriedly over to the little group clustered around the fallen Wethered. "How does it look?" he said.

The assistant Head of Wages turned a haggard face toward him.

"Pretty bad," he said. "The bullet went through nearly all of them. Access, Barclaycard, Diners-the lot."

"It was only the American Express Gold that stopped it," said Wethered.

They looked in mute horror at the spectacle of a credit card wallet with a bullet hole nearly all the way through it.

"Why'd they do it?" said a wages officer.

What most struck me though was the bits woven between all the poking fun at white collar office culture and the human capacity to wish violence on each other. I’d almost call it a coincidence if it wasn’t actually relevant to everything else going on. Any of my fellow Sherlockians, you know what they say about coincidences.

Let’s start with Nigel Tompkins. Or a little before he shows up, for context. Aziraphale and Crowley are hunting for the antichrist so decide to go back to the hospital where Crowley left him. It’s been burned down, most of the sisters have left, but now Sr. Mary Loquacious (now Mary Hodges, no sister) has turned it into a rather unorthodox corporate events center. They’re doing paintball. Lots of stultified corporate types have been handed nonlethal guns and told to have at it, which has exactly the result you’d expect (humans being humans) even before Crowley miracles their dearest wishes into reality and turns their paintball guns into real guns.

This is the scene Az&Cr stumble into (the paintball version to start). Nigel Tompkins has the bad luck to shoot at them as they’re getting out of the car, and after much hemming and hawing over stained fabrics, Crowley scares him off:

Tompkins thumbed another paint pellet into the gun and muttered business mantras to himself. Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You. Kill or Be Killed. Either Shit or Get Out of the Kitchen. Survival of the Fittest. Make My Day.

He crawled a little nearer to the figures by the statue. They didn't seem to have noticed him. When the available cover ran out, he took a deep breath and leapt to his feet.

"Okay, douchebags, grab some sk-ohnoooeeeeee . . ."

Where one of the figures had been there was something dreadful. He blacked out. Crowley restored himself to his favorite shape.

"I hate having to do that," he murmured. "I'm always afraid I'll forget how to change back. And it can ruin a good suit."

"I think the maggots were a bit over the top, myself," said Aziraphale, but without much rancor.

Then later:

Nigel Tompkins had come to with a mild headache and a vaguely empty space in his recent memory. He was not to know that the human brain, when faced with a sight too terrible to contemplate, is remarkably good at scabbing it over with forced forgetfulness, so he put it down to a pellet strike on the head.

He was vaguely aware that his gun was somewhat heavier, but in his mildly bemused state he did not realize why until some time after he'd pointed it at trainee manager Norman Wethered from Internal Audit and pulled the trigger.

It’s this “scabbed over” language that really interests me, because ti comes up again with Mary Hodges. Trying to get information out of her, Crowley puts her into a kind of trance to question her.

"Good"-Crowley glanced at his watch-"morning, ma'am," he said, in a sing-song voice. "We're just a couple of supernatural entities and we were just wondering if you might help us with the whereabouts of the notorious Son of Satan." He smiled coldly at the angel. "I'll wake her up again, shall I? And you can say it."

"Well. Since you put it like that . . ." said the angel slowly.

"Sometimes the old ways are best," said Crowley. He turned to the impassive woman. "Were you a nun here eleven years ago?" he said.

"Yes," said Mary.

"There!" said Crowley to Aziraphale. "See? I knew I wasn't wrong." "Luck of the devil," muttered the angel.

"Your name then was Sister Talkative. Or something." "Loquacious," said Mary Hodges in a hollow voice.

"And do you recall an incident involving the switching of newborn babies?" said Crowley.

Mary Hodges hesitated. When she did speak, it was as though memories that had been scabbed over were being disturbed for the first time in years.

"Yes," she said.

"Is there any possibility that the switch could have gone wrong in some way?" "I do not know."

Crowley thought for a bit. "You must have had records," he said. "There are always records.

Everyone has records these days." He glanced proudly at Aziraphale. "It was one of my better ideas." "Oh, yes," said Mary Hodges.

"And where are they?" said Aziraphale sweetly.

"There was a fire just after the birth."

Crowley groaned and threw his hands in the air. "That was Hastur, probably," he said. "It's his style. Can you believe those guys? I bet he thought he was being really clever." "Do you recall any details about the other child?" said Aziraphale. "Yes."

"Please tell me."

"He had lovely little toesie-wosies."

Neil and PTerry are not authors like me, they don’t just use the same word all helter-skelter because they cant remember what they wrote five lines earlier. They’re funny and most importantly clever people. Or at least they have good editors who will call them on it. So likening this hazy or lost memory to a scab seems intentional to me.

But it’s not that Mary was traumatized by her time with the order. She was young and a bit hemmed in, but they weren’t evil in anything more than being allied with Crowley’s side. There’s nothing about her time with them that would be particularly upsetting, certainly not so much she’d have blocked it out even from her subconscious. Crowley’s putting her under here feels vaguely akin to hypnosis, suppressing part of her mental defenses so she’ll share more information with less filtering. And even then, talking about that time brings on the same sensation Nigel had when exposed to something too scary and --more importantly-- weird to fit with how he normally saw the world.

I think it’s Crowley. Specifically, Crowley letting his human face slip a bit. With Nigel it was intentional, with the nuns, possibly because Crowley was more distressed than he normally was so was less in control of himself? He wasn’t transforming into things that go bump in the night, sure, but between being so upset about the Apocalypse happening and these being his people so he didn’t have to fight so hard to hide his essence, I wonder if he didn’t let a certain something just ... slip through? Something the human mind just isn’t equipped to deal with?

It calls to mind another scene where we talked about memory and the benefit of failing to leave an impression, from much earlier:

"Is that him?" said Sister Mary, staring at the baby. "Only I'd expected funny eyes. Red, or green. Or teensy-weensy little hoofikins. Or a widdle tail." She turned him around as she spoke. No horns either. The Devil's child looked ominously normal.

"Yes, that's him," said Crowley.

"Fancy me holding the Antichrist," said Sister Mary. "And bathing the Antichrist. And counting his little toesy-wosies . . ."

She was now addressing the child directly, lost in some world of her own. Crowley waved a hand in front of her wimple. "Hallo? Hallo? Sister Mary?"

"Sorry, sir. He is a little sweetheart, though. Does he look like his daddy? I bet he does. Does he look like his daddywaddykins . . ."

"No," said Crowley firmly. "And now I should get up to the delivery rooms, if I were you."

"Will he remember me when he grows up, do you think?" said Sister Mary wistfully, sidling slowly down the corridor.

"Pray that he doesn't," said Crowley, and fled.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but maybe it’s not Crowley, or just Crowley, that makes her memories of this event feel scabbed-over. “Lost in some world of her own” could just be getting a little absorbed in the new baby (lots of women particularly are conditioned to think we need to coo over infants, and I can’t imagine the type of women who become nuns-- satanic or otherwise-- are much different in that respect). But it doesn’t have to be just that, does it? Prolonged exposure to the supernatural, even the also-human antichrist in his veiled form, seems like the kind of thing that’s too weird for the human psyche to easily come to terms with.

It’s interesting, because that sort of inability to be noticed is really biting Crowley in the backside now.

"Of course, we might be able to get a human to find him," said Aziraphale thoughtfully. "What?" said Crowley, distractedly.

"Humans are good at finding other humans. They've been doing it for thousands of years. And the child is human. As well as . . . you know. He would be hidden from us, but other humans might be able to . . . oh, sense him, perhaps. Or spot things we wouldn't think of."

"It wouldn't work. He's the Antichrist! He's got this . . . sort of automatic defense, hasn't he? Even if he doesn't know it. It won't even let people suspect him. Not yet. Not till it's ready. Suspicion will slide off him like, like . . . whatever it is water slides off of," he finished lamely.

"Got any better ideas? Got one single better idea?" said Aziraphale.

"No."

I’m not saying this has to be the same sort of inability-to-be-perceived that affected Mary and Nigel above. It could be a sort of built-in defense mechanism specially for the antichrist. But it seems on theme at the very least. There seems something deeply sad to me, and probably very relevant to the queer experience of the ‘80s and ‘90s, around the time this book was written and published, to there being something about your true nature that’s just not allowed to be seen and remembered.

Now I’ve made myself a bit sad, and if you’ve read this long you deserve to end on a treat. Luckily, our favorite authors have us covered there as well.

"Ducks!" he shouted.

"What?"

"That's what water slides off!" Aziraphale took a deep breath.

"Just drive the car, please," he said wearily.

They drove back through the dawn, while the cassette player played J. S. Bach's Mass in B Minor, vocals by F. Mercury.

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

I'm writing this to you because I sort of don't have anyone else to talk about this. I hope you don't mind. I kind of got into a spat over the internet with the lqbtq people. Do you identify with that group? (you don't have to mention it if you're not comfortable disclosing it). The thing is I'm straight but I have considered myself to be an ally all this time but maybe not a very loud one you can say. I don't have any issues with them and I'm in no way homophobic (to each their own, do whatever the fuck you wanna) but they were making fun about straight people being lame or whatever which I found a little uncalled for. To me it feels like how can you expect to find an ally in me if you keep being so hostile towards me. Like they literally don't know anything about me yet I'm being bombarded with messages about how 'queer people will rule the world and the days of my freedom are numbered' (someone said this word to word) and stuff like that. I'm sorry if I'm trauma dumping but I feel quite embarrassed and upset about this and I can't help but hide in the anonymity of the internet.

I don't like labels but for the purpose of this discussion, I'm bread.

(pansexual)

As an ally (tbh, of any minority group), mostly they ask for respect. Just to be treated like normal human beings and seen as equals to those in more privileged positions. For a long time these groups of people have been unfairly treated as lesser than simply because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. I don't necessarily agree with the mentality of "an eye for an eye" - ex: heedlessly make fun of of heteros simply since there's little to no social repercussions in this current social climate - and yet I see where they're coming from. it is frustrating that cis-passing heterosexuals are so easily socially accepted and they have no idea how easy it is, how their identity is not seen as some kind of circus performance, how affirming that you are on the spectrum leads to a sudden interrogation, and how you abruptly become representative / role model / pinnacle of all people on the spectrum (which some people are accepting of and some aren't).

I think speaking poorly of people (even in a general sense) is unsavory and rarely does any good except in extreme situations. But, anyway, basing your perception of an entire group on a clustering of shitty individuals isn't fair either. Assumptions and conclusions of an entire group should not be made off a small sample size that is mostly likely not representative. Making general statements from a loud minority leads to misunderstandings. Plus, you can't change the minds of toxic individuals. Can't be a martyr to those that don't think they need saving. Most people wouldn't want to associate / surround themselves with shitty people regardless of their sexual and/or gender identity. Personal identity does not dictate behavior and shouldn't be treated as such.

tl;dr: If someone is acting like an asshole, they're probably just an asshole lol.

Being outside of the norm / nonconventional does not mean that you exempt from being narrow-minded or ignorant - by choice and/or lack of experiences. Being inside the norm / conventional doesn't excuse you from that either. Also, a lot of the time this type of aggressive behavior is simply projection from past traumas, not necessarily an attack on your person. I don't think you should take it that way, especially since this is online and behind a keyboard. Block and move on. Better to not engage. It will show them that this type of behavior is not acceptable and they won't be getting the satisfaction of a reaction from you as such reactions will only enforce their behavior.

[tehrihills]

Optimizing Market Research: Sampling Strategies by Tehrihills Consulting

Introduction -

Sampling is a fundamental aspect of market research, allowing researchers to gain insights into a larger population without having to study each individual within it. At Tehrihills Consulting, we understand the critical role of sampling in facilitating accurate and actionable Market Data Analysis. Our approach integrates advanced techniques to ensure the representativeness and reliability of the data collected in global market research.

Imagine a scenario where a company aims to understand consumer preferences across different demographics for a new product launch. Conducting surveys or studies with the entire population would be impractical and costly. Instead, through strategic sampling, we can select representative samples from each demographic group and analyze their preferences, behaviors, and opinions. This approach not only streamlines the research process but also provides valuable insights that drive informed decision-making.

Sampling is not just about selecting a subset of the population; it's about strategically choosing the right sample to represent the entire population accurately. By leveraging advanced sampling techniques and cutting-edge research methodologies, Tehrihills Consulting ensures that our clients receive accurate, reliable, and actionable insights to fuel their business growth through global data collection and analysis.

Types of sampling: sampling methods -

1. Probability Sampling Methods: Researcher employ specific criteria to randomly select members from a population. Each member within the population has an equal chance of being chosen for inclusion in the sample, ensuring fairness and representativeness. This systematic approach allows Tehrihills Consulting to gather diverse insights from various segments of the target population, driving robust market research and data analysis outcomes.

Simple Random Sampling: Simple random sampling involves selecting elements from a population entirely at random, ensuring each member has an equal chance of being chosen. This method, akin to picking a name out of a hat, offers an unbiased approach to sample selection. For instance, in an organization of 300 employees, each individual has an equal opportunity of being selected for a sample, facilitating comprehensive insights for Tehrihills Consulting's global market research initiatives.

Systematic Sampling: Systematic sampling entails selecting elements at regular intervals from a population after an initial random selection. This method offers flexibility in sample selection intervals, allowing researchers to avoid unintentional clustering. For example, a researcher may choose every 10th individual from a population of 7000 to form a systematic sample, optimizing time and resources for data collection endeavors in global data collection and analysis

Stratified Sampling: Stratified sampling involves dividing a population into distinct groups based on predefined criteria and then selecting samples randomly from each group. This method enables researchers to obtain representative samples from diverse segments of the population. For instance, Tehrihills Consulting may stratify a population based on income levels to analyse consumer behaviours across various income brackets, thereby enhancing the efficacy of Market Data Analysis.

Cluster Sampling: Cluster sampling entails selecting entire groups or clusters from a population rather than individual units. These clusters, such as geographic regions or academic cohorts, are randomly chosen to represent the entire population. By organizing clusters based on demographic parameters, Tehrihills Consulting can derive actionable insights from diverse population segments, facilitating targeted marketing strategies and informed decision-making in global market research.

2. Non-Probability Sampling Methods: The researchers handpick sample participants according to the specific objectives of their research goals. Unlike probability-based approaches, this method lacks a rigid or predetermined selection process, resulting in varying opportunities for different elements of the population to be part of the sample. This flexible methodology enables Tehrihills Consulting to tailor sampling techniques to meet the unique requirements of each research project, ensuring comprehensive and targeted insights for our clients.

Convenience Sampling: Convenience sampling involves selecting samples based on their accessibility and proximity to the researcher. While convenient, this method may introduce bias due to its non-random nature. However, it serves as a pragmatic approach in situations with time and resource constraints, allowing Tehrihills Consulting to gather preliminary insights swiftly.

Quota Sampling: Quota sampling involves setting predetermined quotas for sample attributes, such as gender or age, to ensure representation across target demographics. While quota sampling facilitates demographic diversity in samples, Tehrihills Consulting acknowledges the potential for bias in sample selection and strives to mitigate it through rigorous research market research and data analysis methodologies.

Purposive Sampling: Purposive sampling entails selecting samples based on the researcher's judgment and expertise, focusing on specific characteristics relevant to the research objectives. While purposive sampling may not yield representative samples, it offers a quick and efficient means of obtaining insights tailored to client's market research solutions needs.

Snowball Sampling: Snowball sampling involves recruiting participants through referrals from existing sample members, cascading through interconnected networks like a snowball rolling downhill. This method proves invaluable in reaching elusive populations or addressing sensitive topics, ensuring Tehrihills Consulting's research initiatives encompass diverse perspectives.

Conclusion -

In conclusion, sampling methods serve as the bedrock of market research, enabling Tehrihills Consulting to gather comprehensive data for Global data collection and analysis and Market Data Analysis. By employing a diverse array of sampling techniques, we ensure the accuracy, reliability, and relevance of insights that drive our clients' success. Partner with Tehrihills Consulting for unparalleled market research solutions tailored to your business objectives.

Unlock the power of Market Data Analysis with Tehrihills Consulting – your trusted partner for Market Research and Data Analysis. Explore global data collection and analysis, Conjoint Data Analysis, Decipher survey programming, CATI Market Research & MaxDiff Analysis. Trust Tehrihills Consulting for accurate Global Market Research Analytics, and expert Data Validation. Partner with us for comprehensive market research solutions that leverage advanced Market Data Analysis techniques to propel your business forward.

[bylerpolls]

hi nerds, time for a statistics lesson that hopefully will help you when making certain polls!

(i know this doesn't apply to every poll, i just wanted to point this out if you are trying to get accurate results to the question you are asking if you want something like that.)

this bylerpolls account collects answers to surveys using cluster sampling. basically, i'm asking these questions to (in theory) the entire byler community. with sampling does come bias though, which can lead to skewed results on polls.

the main type of bias that effects the polls you post on this account is response bias. this is basically where the way that you phrase the question or the answers causes bias. i.e. "xyz (this is the wrong option" or "would you rather kill mike or the babiest girl will that has only gone through bad things in his entire life".

i'm still going to post polls like this, but please keep in mind that phrasing your options like this can cause inaccurate results, if that's something you care about!

[balshumetsbaragouin]

The last update of 2023 for this story hit Sunday! It was a day late to bring you all the best in CSS spaghetti to make the Phantom/Huntress website come to life. I hope my readers find it entertaining.

The next chapter is on for Wednesday as usual since I don't have to wrangle code. I'll can't wait to post it.

Still not convinced to read? Have a sample below!

The forums flooded with reports of tech coming to life and menacing the populace of her hometown with spraying liquids and attempted murder. Vending machines, cars, trucks, laptops, gaming consoles, cell phones, kitchen gadgets, alarm clocks, anything and everything electronic in Amity seemed susceptible to waking up and wiggling around. Not everything that came to life ended up being violent. So, now the website had two areas on the forums to separate ‘docile’ from ‘aggressive’ tech, but they hadn’t changed the submission forms yet. 

It all still lacked a pattern. Some pieces of equipment came to life calm and friendly. Others, despite sharing a make and model, were aggressive and homicidal. The forums buzzed with speculation about the nature of the outbreak, the reasons behind certain types of behaviors, the few people with a large number of electronic ‘wigglers’ as they were now being called, and all betwixt and between.  She’d set up one of her boards, pushing her Phantom one to the other side of the room, trying to make sense of the calamity befalling the reviving rust belt city. A quick exchange with the website owner, someone calling themselves ‘Technomage’, gave her access to the backdoor to analyze the data herself. Not that she didn’t trust their work specifically, she just didn’t trust the work of anyone who wasn’t her. She frowned down at the printouts, strung up against a map on her wall, as she tried to discover if there were clusters of animation locations or if that was random too. Hours of eye watering squinting at tiny font and color coded pages, neck craned in awkward positions, and she was no closer to a solution. She flipped open her phone as it buzzed with a scowl. It did that all the time now. Even with the city divided in half, between her and Amity’s famous protector, her hands were full. 

She looked up at her wall again. The string, photos, and pages reminded her of scenes from movies with paranoid conspiracy nuts. Luckily, her dad knew she was a visualizer and didn’t take her walls being covered in new floppy paper as a sign of her going bonkers, but she was starting to doubt her own sanity as the case gnawed at her mind. She tossed her cell phone back onto her desk and closed her eyes once more, trying to make the cluster of information coalesce into sense. The only thing she and ‘Technomage’ agreed on was that the tech coming to life involved people’s favorites. Every sewing machine, washer, or Xbuddy proved that. But, since not everything was connected to the internet or even had chips inside to infect, her data collaborator was at as much of a loss as her. 

[ahmedferradj]

Data mining

1.What's Data mining ?

Datamining is the process of extracting and discovering patterns in large datasets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics and database systems. Datamining is interdisciplinary subfield of computer-science and statistics with overall goal of extracting information (with intelliegent methods) from a data set and transforming the information into a comprensible structure for further use. Data mining is the analysis step of The KDD process "Knowledge discovery in database".

2.What's KDD process ?

KDD process is known as "Knowledge Discovery in Database".It"s a multi-step process of finding knowledge from large data sets and emphasizes the high-level application of particular datamining methods.It's of interests to researchers in machine learning, pattern recognition, databases, ststistics, artificial intelligence, knowledge aquisition for experts systems and data-visualization. The picture below defines the different steps of KDD process and each of those steps have an input and output entity. The KDD process can't be executed without beginning on data.

3.What are the different steps of the KDD process ?

The overall process of finding and interpretting patterns from data involves the repeated application of the following steps mentioned in the graph above :

Selection : we create a target data set by seecting a part of the overall data set as a sample then focusing on a subset of variables on which discovery is to be performed. The result of these step is a subset of data considered as a sample.

Preprocessing : These step of the KDD process takes the target data set as an input then it applyes data cleaning by removing the noise from the input data set then restucturing the data set. The output of these operation is a preprocessed dataset that can be able to be transformed in the next step.

Data transformation : These step takes the preprocessed data as input and tres to find some useful features depending on the goal of the task and reducing dimension to execute an effective learining datamining.

Data mining : in this phase we will descide whether the goal of KDD process is classification, regression, clustering ...etc. Discover the patterns of interests.

Interpretation : Interpretating mined patterns and consolidating discovered knowledge.

4.What are data mining tasks ?

There are several steps that are defined in the sub-process of KDD especially in datamining steps. In Data mining, there are 02 types of data mining that are :

Predictive mining: predective data mining is the analysis done to predict a future event or other data or trends and to predict something will happen in the near future. Predective data mining offers a better future analysis and to make better decisions to add a value in predective analytics like for example predecting the future customer of a defined service, define the future price of oil and gaz in the world market, define the next ill of an international pandemic, define the future political conflict ... etc. There are 4 types of descriptive data mining tasks which are :

Classification analysis : It is used to retrieve critical and pertinent data and metadata. It categorizes information into various groups. Classification Analysis is best demonstrated by email providers. They use algorithms to determine whether or not a message is legitimate.

Regression Analysis : It tries to express the interdependence of variables. Forecasting and prediction are common applications.

Time Serious Analysis : It is a series of well-defined data points taken at regular intervals.

Prediction Analysis : It is related to time series, but the time isn’t restricted.

Descriptive mining : descriptive data mining is to describe data and make data more readable to human beings, it's used to extract information from previous events and data and to discovering an interesting patterns and association behind data. It's also used to exract correlations, relationships between features and finding new laws and regularities based on data. There are four different types of Descriptive Data Mining tasks. They are as follows :

Clustering analysis : It is the process of determining which data sets are similar to one another. For example, to increase conversion rates, clusters of customers with similar buying habits can be grouped together with similar products.

Summerazation analysis : It entails methods for obtaining a concise description of a dataset. For example, summarising a large number of items related to Christmas season sales provides a general description of the data, which can be extremely useful to sales and marketing managers.

Association rules analysis : This method aids in the discovery of interesting relationships between various variables in large databases. The retail industry is the best example. As the holiday season approaches, retail stores stock up on chocolates, with sales increasing before the holiday, which is accomplished through Data Mining.

Sequence discovery analysis : It's all about how to do something in a specefic order. For instance, a user may frequently purchase shaving gel before purchasing razor in a store.It all comes down to the order in which the user purchases the product, and the store owner can then arrange the items accordingly.

5.Links :

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Evidence of Dark Matter-Free Dwarf Galaxy Challenges Conventional Galaxy Formation Models

Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have found compelling evidence of a dark matter-deficient dwarf galaxy, FCC 224. This ultra-diffuse galaxy is located on the outskirts of the Fornax Cluster, approximately 60-65 million light-years from Earth. The discovery challenges the traditional cosmological paradigm, which assumes dark matter is a fundamental component in galaxy formation. Previously, dark matter-deficient galaxies without any ongoing star formation had only been claimed in one other place, the NGC 1052 group, and the new observations suggest such objects may be more widespread than previously thought.

The unusual galaxy was profiled in two complimentary studies. The first study, led by Doctoral Candidate Yimeng Tang of the University of California, Santa Cruz and published in the journal Astrophysical Journal, analyzes FCC 224’s unique globular star cluster system. The second, led by Doctoral Candidate Maria Luísa Buzzo of Swinburne University and of the European Southern Observatory, and published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, explores the dark matter content of the galaxy and possible scenarios for its formation.

“Globular clusters are often used as a proxy to estimate the amount of dark matter a galaxy contains,” said Buzzo. “For some reason this galaxy (FCC 224) has an unusual number of luminous clusters and no dark matter, at least within its inner regions. No existing galaxy formation model within our standard cosmological paradigm can currently explain how this galaxy came to be.”

Buzzo’s research investigated the dark matter content of FCC 224 using high-resolution spectroscopy from Keck Observatory’s Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI). She explored its similarities to previously claimed dark matter-free dwarf galaxies DF2 and DF4, located within the NGC 1052 galaxy group, to determine whether or not FCC 224 belongs to the same class of galaxies. Buzzo’s research builds upon the initial findings of Tang, who, using imaging from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), found that FCC 224 has star clusters similar to other dark matter-deficient galaxies. Their research suggests that these types of star clusters may be linked to a lack of dark matter, challenging conventional models of galaxy formation. The Keck Observatory/KCWI data were obtained through a Swinburne University proposal under Principal Investigator (PI) Duncan Forbes, while the HST data were acquired through a program led by PI Aaron Romanowsky.

“The new high-resolution red arm of KCWI enabled us to measure very precisely the motions within the galaxy, which can be used to trace its dark matter content,” explained Buzzo. “KCWI’s high spectral resolution allowed us to precisely measure the motions (velocity dispersion) within FCC 224’s stars and globular clusters,” said Tang. “These measurements confirmed that the galaxy exhibits an extremely low velocity dispersion -- a hallmark of dark matter deficiency.”

Both teams highlight the need for further observations to understand the mechanisms behind FCC 224’s formation. One leading hypothesis is that an external interaction, such as a high-velocity collision, may have separated the galaxy’s dark and visible matter, a formation scenario known as ‘the bullet-dwarf model’. However, additional data is required to test this theory. “FCC 224 serves as a crucial data point in our effort to identify and study other dark matter-deficient galaxies,” Buzzo added. “By expanding the sample size, we can refine our understanding of these rare galaxies and of the role of dark matter in dwarf galaxy formation.”

The discovery of FCC 224 outside the NGC 1052 group suggests that dark matter-deficient galaxies may be more common than previously believed, raising fundamental questions about the necessity of dark matter in shaping galaxies. As observational capabilities improve, astronomers aim to conduct larger surveys to identify similar galaxies and investigate their origins.

IMAGE: ST/WFC3 F475X/F814W pseudo-color image of the ultra-diffuse galaxy FCC 224, located in the Fornax cluster as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

[bpod-bpod]

Many Mini Maps

The environment in and around a tumour is like a hostile school lunch hall, with some cliques clumping together while free spirits and nervous new starters scatter among spare seats. The tumour environment houses cancer cells but also countless immune cells and other materials either co-opted to the cancer’s cause or dragged in as bystanders. Mapping the distribution of these cell types might reveal new lines of approach for treatments. A study placed 23 molecular markers on many non-small cell lung cancer samples (pictured) and found that some protective immune cells cluster together while cells suppressing immune activity mix more evenly. With proximity to cancer cells, the distribution patterns changed, and the team found a link between the cell layouts and survival outcomes, suggesting that these maps could point the way to better understanding of a patient’s tumour microenvironment, more accurate analysis of tumours, and even new forms of treatment.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image adapted from work by Edwin Roger Parra and colleagues

Departments of Translational Molecular Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, April 2023

You can also follow BPoD on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[boy-with-the-demon-blood]

in doing research about our disorders we have stumbled across something that has absolutely BLOWN OUR COLLECTIVE MIND and thus feel the need to share it with you all. the information here is about ADHD and DID, but mostly ADHD. we found the article through a website about DID but most of what we are talking about is about ADHD

coming from did-research.org's section on comorbid disorders, we read the paragraph:

There is a growing body of research showing that ADHD can be caused, exacerbated, or mimicked by childhood maltreatment. Although ADHD is known to be strongly heritable, there is evidence that genetic vulnerability interacts with an adverse family environment to increase the risk of ADHD (Laucht et al., 2007). Among those with childhood-diagnosed ADHD, the majority will not meet full ADHD criteria in adulthood, but childhood adversity increases the likelihood of continuing symptoms (Fuller-Thomson et al., 2015). Child maltreatment is strongly associated with symptoms also found in ADHD, including inattention, impulsivity, difficulties managing anger, extreme passivity, peer rejection, poor academic functioning, and cognitive delays (Briscoe-Smith & Hinshaw, 2006; Guendelman et al., 2016), and childhood physical abuse is so strongly associated with ADHD that some studies have found that ADHD is more likely to result from physical abuse than any other disorder, including PTSD (Sugaya et al., 2013). Most notably, ADHD symptoms are conceptualized as one of the clusters of symptoms associated with developmental trauma disorder, a proposed diagnosis meant to capture the extremely wide-reaching effects of severe childhood neglect and abuse (D’Andrea et al., 2012).

(bold font added by me to increase readability because tumblr's font is not very wall-of-text friendly)

AND THE PHRASE "Among those with childhood-diagnosed ADHD, the majority will not meet full ADHD criteria in adulthood" WAS SO FUNDAMENTALLY LIKE. PARADIGM SHIFTING. THAT WE LOOKED AT THE ARTICLE CITED AND IT ONLY GETS WORSE FOR OUR PAST PERCEPTION OF ADHD.

This is the article cited.

This is a paragraph from the abstract of the article, so not even the actual research conducted yet, just the background.

Research has begun to demonstrate a relationship between ADHD and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing parental domestic violence. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Ouyang, Fang, Mercy, Perou, and Grosse (2008) showed that adolescents with a history of childhood physical abuse had higher odds of self-reported symptoms of both inattentive and hyperactive subtypes of ADHD. Those with a history of sexual abuse also had significantly higher odds of the inattentive subtype, but not the hyperactive one. Another large study, this time using a representative sample of adult Canadians, found that those with a history of physical abuse had over six times higher odds of self-reporting a health professional diagnosis of ADHD (Fuller-Thomson, Mehta, & Valeo, 2014). Several smaller clinical studies have also linked ADHD to ACEs: Briscoe-Smith and Hinshaw (2006) found that a higher percentage of girls with ADHD reported any type of abuse than a matched comparison group. They also showed that most of the abuse occurred in the combination ADHD type as opposed to the inattentive type. Ford et al. (2000) revealed, among children and adolescents, that a history of physical or sexual maltreatment was associated with a diagnosis of ADHD. Finally, Biederman et al. (1995) found that children presenting with ADHD at a pediatric clinic disproportionately came from families who had experienced high levels of conflict.

(again, bold font added by me)

and i don't know enough about the categorization of developmental disorders and trauma disorders to really make this judgement but my brain semi-jokingly said "so when are we going to start classifying (adult) adhd as a trauma disorder" because like. the majority of people who i know that were diagnosed as kids violently hated being on medication and now don't use it, but every adult or late-teen-diagnosed person i know is endlessly grateful for medication. this is just personal experience, and i haven't made specific notes of it, but over half of my cousins (i have 30, so at least 15) have been diagnosed with adhd at some point or another, and they follow this pattern as well. the ones diagnosed past the age of like 16 or so have stayed on medication and we have talked about how much it has helped us, and the ones diagnosed as children look at us like we have three heads when we say we want to be on medication.

idk i just want to know you guys' thoughts! can be personal experience or professional knowledge, sorry that the second article is behind a paywall, i'm at university rn so i have access to it if you want me to like send you a pdf of it.