The evolution of strongly-held group identities through agent-based cooperation

Identity fusion represents a strongly-held personal identity that significantly overlaps with that of a group, and is the current best explanation as to why individuals become empowered to act with extreme self-sacrifice for a group of non-kin. This is widely seen and documented, yet how identity fusion is promoted by evolution is not well-understood, being seemingly counter to the selfish pursuit of survival. In this paper we extend agent-based modelling to explore how and why identity fusion can establish itself in an unrelated population with no previous shared experiences. Using indirect reciprocity to provide a framework for agent interaction, we enable agents to express their identity fusion towards a group, and observe the effects of potential behaviours that are incentivised by a heightened fusion level. These build on the social psychology literature and involve heightened sensitivity of fused individuals to perceived hypocritical group support from others. We find that simple self-referential judgement and ignorance of perceived hypocrites is sufficient to promote identity fusion and this is easily triggered by a sub-group of the population. Interestingly the self-referential judgement that we impose is an individual-level behaviour with no direct collective benefit shared by the population. The study provides clues, beyond qualitative and observational studies, as to how hypocrisy may have established itself to reinforce the collective benefit of a fused group identity. It also provides an alternative perspective on the controversial proposition of group selection - showing how fluidity between an individual’s reputation and that of a group may function and influence selection as a consequence of identity fusion.

Outcomes of COVID-19 Infection in Patients Receiving Ruxolitinib and Hypomethylating Agent Therapy

Introduction The ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has provoked questions about treatment decisions in patients with hematologic malignancies. Of note, several anti-cancer agents have been shown to have preclinical activity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including ruxolitinib (Jakafi), as well as the hypomethylating agents (HMA) decitabine (Dacogen) and azacitidine (Vidaza). In addition, ruxolitinib has previously been shown to have potent activity against the cytokine response, similar to that seen in COVID-19 infections. The optimal management of patients on these agents who become infected with COVID-19 is unknown and it is not clear if the use of these agents modifies the clinical course of infection. We describe a case series of patients with hematologic malignancies receiving therapy with these agents while infected with COVID-19. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of consecutive patients between March 1 and May 21, 2020 who were receiving therapy with ruxolitinib, azacitidine, or decitabine when diagnosed with COVID-19 by SARS-CoV-2 PCR assay within the Mount Sinai Health System. The indications for these agents included acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and myelodysplastic syndromes. Patients who last received the agent more than thirty days prior to COVID-19 diagnosis were excluded from our series. Results Sixteen patients on HMA or ruxolitinib were diagnosed with COVID-19 within our health system during this span. Full patient characteristics and clinical data are described in Tables 1a and 1b. Seven patients were receiving ruxolitinib and nine patients were on HMA: eight on azacitidine and one on decitabine. Of the patients on HMA, eight had therapy held after confirmed COVID-19 infection, and one was continued on therapy. Overall mortality in the HMA cohort was 88.9% (8/9), including 7/8 in the therapy-held group and the one patient for whom therapy was continued. Of the patients on ruxolitinib, three had therapy held and four were continued after confirmed infection. Overall mortality in the ruxolitinib cohort was 57.1% (4/7), with 75% (3/4) in the therapy-held and 33% (1/3) mortality in the therapy-continued groups. All patients who died (n = 12) required either non-invasive positive pressure ventilation or mechanical ventilation. Across all agents, patients who survived (n = 4) required no higher level of supplemental oxygen than non-rebreather mask, and one did not require hospitalization. Cytokine levels were on average higher on admission for the ruxolitinib-held group but were not associated with mortality or increased oxygen requirement. Discussion High mortality rates were observed for both ruxolitinib and HMA in this high-risk group of patients with hematologic malignancy regardless of whether therapy was held. HMA was commonly held at time of infection: further investigation will be needed to elucidate any potential in-vivo anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity for these reagents. Mortality was numerically less in patients in receiving ruxolitinib who continued therapy, however this should be interpreted with caution given our small cohort. Further clinical trials to address the use of ruxolitinib are necessary and are ongoing. These data can help guide further investigation regarding use of anti-cancer therapy in patients with hematologic malignancy diagnosed with COVID-19. Disclosures Mascarenhas: Celgene, Prelude, Galecto, Promedior, Geron, Constellation, and Incyte: Consultancy; Incyte, Kartos, Roche, Promedior, Merck, Merus, Arog, CTI Biopharma, Janssen, and PharmaEssentia: Other: Research funding (institution).

Making better use of what we have: Strategies to minimize food waste and resource inefficiency in Canada

We examined the problems of and solutions to food waste through the main three frames of social science research on food waste: political economy; the cultural turn (the cultures, ideologies and politics of food and consumption); and political ecology. In the course of our collective research on food waste, we analyzed dozens of government and company documents, interviewed over 35 employees of food chain firms and organizations, including 9 middle to senior managers in food retail, and 2 farmers. One co-author, as part of this and affiliated work (McCallum, Campbell & MacRae, 2014), toured distribution facilities and stores of a major Canadian food retailer, had access to the Company’s head office staff, held group and one-on-one interviews with staff in a variety of capacities, and was granted access to confidential corporate reports. Another co-author volunteered with a food recovery organization and spoke with their operational staff. Our method to identify solutions is described in more detail below, but essentially we follow a normative approach as broadly outlined by MacRae and Winfield (2016). Our focus in this paper is on changes to policies, programmes and legislation/regulation at the level of the state. Such interventions are clearly only a piece of a wide ranging set of initiatives to be undertaken by numerous actors – from food chain firms to individual eaters – but our reading is that more attention has recently been paid to private firm than regulatory changes. We hope to redress this to some degree in this article.

The Fischer–Clifford Matrices of a Maximal Subgroup of the Sporadic Simple Group of Held

The Held group He discovered by Held [10] is a sporadic simple group of order 4030387200 = 210.33.52.73.17. The group He has 11 conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups as determined by Butler [5] and listed in the 𝔸𝕋𝕃𝔸𝕊. Held himself determined much of the local structure of He as well as the conjugacy classes of its elements. Thompson calculated the character table of He . In the present paper, we determine the Fischer–Clifford matrices and hence compute the character table of the non-split extension 3·S7, which is a maximal subgroups of He of index 226560 using the technique of Fischer–Clifford matrices. Most of the computations were carried out with the aid of the computer algebra system 𝔾𝔸ℙ.