Artificial intelligence model GPT4 narrowly fails simulated radiological protection exam.

This study assesses the efficacy of Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPT) published by OpenAI in the specialised domains of radiological protection and health physics. Utilising a set of 1064 surrogate questions designed to mimic a health physics certification exam, we evaluated the models' ability to accurately respond to questions across five knowledge domains. Our results indicated that neither model met the 67% passing threshold, with GPT-3.5 achieving a 45.3% weighted average and GPT-4 attaining 61.7%. Despite GPT-4's significant parameter increase and multimodal capabilities, it demonstrated superior performance in all categories yet still fell short of a passing score. The study's methodology involved a simple, standardised prompting strategy without employing prompt engineering or in-context learning, which are known to potentially enhance performance. The analysis revealed that GPT-3.5 formatted answers more correctly, despite GPT-4's higher overall accuracy. The findings suggest that while GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 show promise in handling domain-specific content, their application in the field of radiological protection should be approached with caution, emphasising the need for human oversight and verification.

Cannabis-induced psychotic-like experiences are predicted by high schizotypy. Confirmation of preliminary results in a large cohort.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis use has been identified as a possible risk factor for developing schizophrenia. In a previous paper we reported preliminary evidence that cannabis use increases the likelihood of psychosis-like experiences in non-clinical respondents who scored highly on a measure of schizotypy. We now present findings from pooled data from 3 new follow-up studies comprising a sample of 477 respondents, of whom 332 reported using cannabis at least once. SAMPLING AND METHODS: As in our previous study, the psychological effects of cannabis were assessed with the Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire, from which 3 subscales can be derived; encompassing pleasurable experiences, psychosis-like experiences and after-effects. The respondents also completed the brief Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. RESULTS: Cannabis use was reported by 70% of the sample. Use per se was not significantly related to schizotypy. However, high scoring schizotypes were more likely to report both psychosis-like experiences and unpleasant after-effects associated with cannabis use. The pleasurable effects of cannabis use were not related to schizotypy. Exploratory factor analysis of the pooled data from this study and our previous report (providing a sample of >400 cannabis users) suggested a 3-factor solution. These were characterised as a psychotic-dysphoric index (factor 1), an expansive index (factor 2) and an intoxicated index (factor 3). Schizotypy was highly correlated with factors 1 and 3, though not with factor 2. CONCLUSION: High scoring schizotypes who use cannabis are more likely to experience psychotic-dysphoric phenomena and intoxicating effects during and after use. Our results confirm and expand the findings reported in our previous study. They are consistent with the hypothesis that cannabis use may be a risk factor for full psychosis in this group.

Spatial and temporal variation in the seroprevalence of canine heartworm antigen in the island fox.

Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) are endemic to six of the eight California Channel Islands (USA). The island fox is classified as a threatened species by the State of California, and recently three of the six subspecies have experienced abrupt population declines. As part of a continuing effort to determine the cause of the declines, we tested island fox serum samples collected in 1988 (n = 176) and 1997-98 (n = 156) over the entire geographic range of the species for seroprevalence of canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) antigen. Using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PetChek, Idexx Laboratories, Westbrook, Maine, USA) we detected heartworm antigen in four of the six populations of island foxes. On San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands, seroprevalence in adult foxes was >85% (n = 62) in 1988 and increased to 100% (n = 24) in 1997-98. On Santa Cruz Island, seroprevalence in adult foxes decreased from 83% (n = 30) to 58% (n = 26), whereas on San Nicolas Island, seroprevalence increased from 25% (n = 32) to 77% (n = 30) during the same period. All of the pups assayed (n = 33) were seronegative. The seroprevalences of heartworm reported herein for the four populations of island foxes are the highest yet reported for a fox species. However, additional demographic data reported elsewhere suggests that heartworm has not been a major factor in the recent declines of island fox populations.

The use of microsatellite variation to infer population structure and demographic history in a natural model system.

To assess the reliability of genetic markers it is important to compare inferences that are based on them to a priori expectations. In this article we present an analysis of microsatellite variation within and among populations of island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) on California's Channel Islands. We first show that microsatellite variation at a moderate number of loci (19) can provide an essentially perfect description of the boundaries between populations and an accurate representation of their historical relationships. We also show that the pattern of variation across unlinked microsatellite loci can be used to test whether population size has been constant or increasing. Application of these approaches to the island fox system indicates that microsatellite variation may carry considerably more information about population history than is currently being used.

Phototherapy in Gunn rats. A study to assess the photobiologically most effective radiant energy and dose/response relationships.

In order to get a more realistic spectral efficiency curve and to evaluate dose/response relationships in phototherapy, homozygous weanling Gunn rats -- nondepilated, with fur -- were illuminated under standardized conditions with 8 different fluorescent tubes. Some of the tubes were operated with different electric power. Clear spectal differences in the extent and the rapidity of the bilirubin decay could be ascertained. Furthermore, the sharpness of the bilirubin decrease depended on the baseline concentration. For the calculations the animals were therefore divided into 3 groups with starting levels of larger than or equal to 8 mg%, 6.5--7.9 mg% and less than 6.5 mg%. Correlating the spectral power distribution of the lamps with the bilirubin decomposition found in the experiment, the spectral response function s(lambda)bili, rel was calculated by an integral method. A comparison of our results with data from the literature shows that so far near UV radiation was evaluated too high. A new radiometer for digital measuring the effective irradiance Ebili was developed. On a logarithmic scale a comparatively sharp dose/response relationship could be demonstrated in dependence on the measured effective radiant exposure. Serum bilirubin decrease is directly proportional to log Ebili. A dose of about 2.5 mW - h/cm2 is necessary to achieve a constant serum bilirubin decrease at all. Good results were obtained at doses of about 35 mW - h/cm2 with the most efficient being at 160 mW - h/cm2. Highly effective doses can be applied with different types of lamps. However, there are great differences in the time of illumination required. 24 h are necessary with daylight tubes (Osram L 20 W/19) to apply 20 mW - h/cm2, whereas the same dose is already attained after 4 h with BAM blue tubes (Philips). The accuracy of the radiometer was finally controlled by screening Westinghouse special blue and Osram standard blue tubes with black tapes, so that the effective irradiance (Ebili) corresponded to that of Osram daylight tubes. The bilirubin decrease observed after this manipulation was nearly identical (not exceeding 1 SD of the daylight values). Since bilirubin decrease was sharper in the first few hours of illumination, continuous phototherapy was compared in some tests with 3 intermittent schedules: (a) 4 h light, 4 h dark, 4 h light; (b) 5 h light, 2 h dark, 5 h light, (c) alternately 2 h light and 2 h dark. There was no indication that more bilirubin could be removed per hour with intermittent phototherapy than with continuous illumination.