cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Vozes em marcha pela Amazônia
Creators: name: Tuma Martins, Ewerton Domingos
name: Machado, Michelly Silva
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: Com objetivo de documentar as vozes dos movimentos sociais, este ensaio fotográfico apresenta os registros da “Marcha dos Povos da Terra pela Amazônia”, que aconteceu em Belém/PA no início da manhã do dia 08 de agosto de 2023. A Marcha reuniu representantes de vários movimentos sociais que saíram em caminhada pelas ruas de Belém/PA, do Bosque Rodrigues Alves em direção ao Hangar. Na ocasião, estavam reunidos na Cúpula da Amazônia chefes de Estados dos países da Pan-Amazônia. Entre os líderes estavam representantes de entidades internacionais e da Organização do Tratado de Cooperação Amazônica (OTCA) como: Bolívia, Brasil, Colômbia, Equador, Guiana, Peru, Suriname e Venezuela. A cúpula foi um evento realizado de 08 a 09 de agosto de 2023, cujo objetivo consistiu em pensar iniciativas, parcerias e uma agenda de cooperação para o desenvolvimento sustentável da Amazônia. Como objetivos secundários foi proposto estímulo à economia local, valorização dos diferentes coletivos étnicos e seus respectivos conhecimentos ancestrais.
Dynamical Gap Generation in Topological Insulators
Creators: name: Cea, Paolo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We developed a quantum field theoretical description for the surface states of three-dimensional topological insulators. Within the relativistic quantum field theory formulation, we investigated the dynamics of low-lying surface states in an applied transverse magnetic field. We argued that, by taking into account quantum fluctuations, in three-dimensional topological insulators there is dynamical generation of a gap by a rearrangement of the Dirac sea. By comparing with available experimental data we found that our theoretical results allowed a consistent and coherent description of the Landau level spectrum of the surface low-lying excitations. Finally, we showed that the recently detected zero-Hall plateau at the charge neutral point could be accounted for by chiral edge states residing at the magnetic domain boundaries between the top and bottom surfaces of the three-dimensional topological insulator.
description: 28 pages, 8 figures; revised version accepted for publication in EPJB
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on HbA1c Testing: Prioritization of High-Risk Cases and Impact of Social Deprivation.
Creators: name: Holland, David
name: Heald, Adrian H
name: Hanna, Fahmy FW
name: Stedman, Mike
name: Wu, Pensée
name: Sim, Julius
name: Duff, Christopher J
name: Duce, Helen
name: Green, Lewis
name: Scargill, Jonathan
name: Howe, Jonathon D
name: Robinson, Sarah
name: Halsall, Ian
name: Gaskell, Neil
name: Davison, Andrew
name: Simms, Mark
name: Denny, Angela
name: Langan, Martin
name: Fryer, Anthony A
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2023
Subjects: COVID-19
Diabetes mellitus
Glycated haemoglobin
HbA1c
Index of multiple deprivation
Monitoring
Pandemic
Recovery

description: INTRODUCTION: Studies show that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected people with diabetes and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the first 6 months of the UK lockdown, > 6.6 M glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) tests were missed. We now report variability in the recovery of HbA1c testing, and its association with diabetes control and demographic characteristics. METHODS: In a service evaluation, we examined HbA1c testing across ten UK sites (representing 9.9% of England's population) from January 2019 to December 2021. We compared monthly requests from April 2020 to those in the equivalent 2019 months. We examined effects of (i) HbA1c level, (ii) between-practice variability, and (iii) practice demographics. RESULTS: In April 2020, monthly requests dropped to 7.9-18.1% of 2019 volumes. By July 2020, testing had recovered to 61.7-86.9% of 2019 levels. During April-June 2020, we observed a 5.1-fold variation in the reduction of HbA1c testing between general practices (12.4-63.8% of 2019 levels). There was evidence of limited prioritization of testing for patients with HbA1c > 86 mmol/mol during April-June 2020 (4.6% of total tests vs. 2.6% during 2019). Testing in areas with the highest social disadvantage was lower during the first lockdown (April-June 2020; trend test p < 0.001) and two subsequent periods (July-September and October-December 2020; both p < 0.001). By February 2021, testing in the highest deprivation group had a cumulative fall in testing of 34.9% of 2019 levels versus 24.6% in those in the lowest group. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight that the pandemic response had a major impact on diabetes monitoring and screening. Despite limited test prioritization in the > 86 mmol/mol group, this failed to acknowledge that those in the 59-86 mmol/mol group require consistent monitoring to achieve the best outcomes. Our findings provide additional evidence that those from poorer backgrounds were disproportionately disadvantaged. Healthcare services should redress this health inequality.
Stressors that Affect Interracial versus Intraracial Relationships
Creators: name: Rich, Emma
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2015

description: Interracial relationships have become more common over the last fifty years, but they still make up only a small percentage of marriages in the United States. The following study investigates, first, whether individuals in interracial relationships report higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms and lower levels of relationship commitment than those in intraracial, or same-race, relationships. The study also evaluates whether these higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms will be mediated by the racial discrimination individuals face when with their partner and/or the stress of experiencing less social support from friends, family, and society because of their relationship. A survey was distributed via email to 33 individuals who identified as members of an interracial relationship and 67 individuals in an intraracial relationship. This survey included questions about relationship commitment, relationship with family and friends, perceived discrimination, and stress and depressive symptoms. Results show no association between relationship investment and type of relationship, nor was there an association between family and friend relationships and type of relationship. There was, however, a higher level of perceived discrimination reported by interracial versus intraracial couples. Moreover, perceived discrimination mediated the association between type of relationship and perceived stress and depressive symptoms. Overall, findings do not fully support the hypotheses; however, this could be due to idiosyncrasies in the sample that was surveyed. Implications of findings are discussed.
Erosion protection by winter state of salt marsh vegetation
Creators: name: Paul, Maike
name: Kerpen, Nils B.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry

description: The inclusion of coastal ecosystems in coastal protection strategies is highly desired, but for temperate regions it is hampered by uncertainty about the provision of relevant ecosystem services over the annual growth cycle. This flume study compared winter stages of the two salt marsh species Spartina anglica and Elymus athericus with and without above ground biomass to bare soil to assess their protection service against vertical bed erosion in the surf and swash zone. Results yielded no effect of the above ground biomass on mean erosion, even though the species responded differently with E. athericus buckling and S. anglica withstanding the hydrodynamic forcing. Equally, no significant differences were observed between species which is attributed to the comparable dry root biomass and soil bulk density of the used vegetated patches. While this similarity does not allow for establishment of quantitative relationships, the results suggest a species independent erosion protection efficiency persisting throughout the year. This has the potential to simplify the consideration of erosion protection by salt marsh in coastal protection strategies, as it alleviates the need for detailed differentiation on species or seasonal level of this ecosystem service.
Controlled confinement of half-metallic two-dimensional electron gas in BaTiO3/Ba2FeReO6/BaTiO3 heterostructures: A first-principles study
Creators: name: Baidya, Santu
name: Waghmare, Umesh V.
name: Paramekanti, Arun
name: Saha-Dasgupta, Tanusri
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Using density functional theory calculations, we establish that the half-metallicity of bulk Ba2FeReO6 survives down to 1 nm thickness in BaTiO3/Ba2FeReO6/BaTiO3 heterostructures grown along the (001) and (111) directions. The confinement of the two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in this quantum well structure arises from the suppressed hybridization between Re/Fe d states and unoccupied Ti d states, and it is further strengthened by polar fields for the (111) direction. This mechanism, distinct from the polar catastrophe, leads to an order of magnitude stronger confinement of the 2D electron gas than that at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. We further show low-energy bands of (111) heterostructure display nontrivial topological character. Our work opens up the possibility of realizing ultrathin spintronic devices.
Interannual variations in the hydrodynamics of a tropical river-wetland system: a case study for the Abras de Mantequilla wetland, Ecuador
Creators: name: Alvarez-Mieles, Gabriela
name: Valdes, Enrique Galecio
name: Mynett, Arthur E.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences

description: Wetlands are sensitive to hydrological conditions and human influence. The Abras de Mantequilla wetland (AdM) located at the centre of the Guayas River Basin (Western Ecuador), was declared a Ramsar site (2000) due to its important role in the conservation of bird fauna diversity. The wetland also supports significant populations of fish, including endemic species. The area exhibits two seasons: (i) a wet season (January–May); and (ii) a dry season (June–December). For the area of interest data is scarce, and a hydrodynamic model did not exist. In order to evaluate the interannual hydrodynamics and inundation patterns variability of this wetland system, a 2D hydrodynamic model was developed using the Delft3D software suite. Local knowledge was combined with field observations and expert elicitation to construct an appropriate model for the area. Results show that the Abras de Mantequilla is a river-wetland system that experiences extreme variations in hydrodynamic conditions from low water depths and almost stagnant conditions during the dry season, to a very dynamic behaviour during the rainy season. The inundation area ranges between 5 to 27 km2, water depths vary from 0.4 to 9 m and flow velocities from 0.0 up to 0.9 m/s. The “Nuevo River” is the main inflow to the wetland, with an overall contribution of about 85–90%, with peak discharges during February and March. A numerical tracer analysis indicated that the wetland can be divided into three main areas (upper, middle and low), with higher residence times found in the middle area. Overall, based on numerical hydrodynamic simulations it was possible to obtain adequate indications of the relative importance of the different river inflow conditions, as well as spatial and temporal inundation patterns, velocities and residence times under hydrological conditions varying from dry to extremely wet years. Furthermore, the hydrodynamic model provides a basis for other studies such as water quality assessment and primary production dynamics, as well as for determining the habitat suitability for fish.
Unfreezing Bosnia: An Anthropological Evaluation of the Role of Internationals
Creators: name: Murphy, Farrell
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2014

description: The Dayton Accords of 1995 ended the Bosnian War and halted the violent conflict taking place in this former-Yugoslavian republic. While the peace agreement succeeded in ending the immediate fighting, it set up an ethnically and territorially divided state that has limited Bosnia Herzegovina’s progression. Political scientists have dissected the structural and political shortcomings of the Bosnian system in order to explain the current stalled state of the country. However, there is a substantial gap in the discussion regarding other factors, such as history, culture, and the presence of internationals, that is needed in order to fully understand the scope of the problems. Through briefings, meetings, and informal interactions with a variety of international organizations over a span of a few months in Bosnia Herzegovina, I use my first hand experience to analyze the situation from an anthropological perspective. In addition to the muddled and inconclusive end to the Bosnian War, as well as Bosnia’s unique ethnic make-up, the international organizations themselves have played a role in the outcome of the country through inconsistent messaging and useless actions. I take an anthropological stance in examining the nature of the international organizations themselves in Bosnia in order to provide a deeper perspective on the situation that will be useful in the formation of more targeted and successful strategies in post- conflict Bosnia Herzegovina.
Towards Effective Codebookless Model for Image Classification
Creators: name: Wang, Qilong
name: Li, Peihua
name: Zhang, Lei
name: Zuo, Wangmeng
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The bag-of-features (BoF) model for image classification has been thoroughly studied over the last decade. Different from the widely used BoF methods which modeled images with a pre-trained codebook, the alternative codebook free image modeling method, which we call Codebookless Model (CLM), attracted little attention. In this paper, we present an effective CLM that represents an image with a single Gaussian for classification. By embedding Gaussian manifold into a vector space, we show that the simple incorporation of our CLM into a linear classifier achieves very competitive accuracy compared with state-of-the-art BoF methods (e.g., Fisher Vector). Since our CLM lies in a high dimensional Riemannian manifold, we further propose a joint learning method of low-rank transformation with support vector machine (SVM) classifier on the Gaussian manifold, in order to reduce computational and storage cost. To study and alleviate the side effect of background clutter on our CLM, we also present a simple yet effective partial background removal method based on saliency detection. Experiments are extensively conducted on eight widely used databases to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our CLM method.
4D intravital imaging studies identify platelets as the predominant cellular procoagulant surface in a mouse hemostasis model
Creators: name: Ballard-Kordeliski, Abigail
name: Bergmeier, Wolfgang
name: Paul, David S
name: Jones, Summer R
name: Lee, Robert H
name: O'Shaughnessy, Ellen Clelia
name: Flick, Matthew J
name: Kim, Paul Y
name: Pawlinski, Rafal
name: Adalsteinsson, David
name: Mackman, Nigel
Publisher: name: American Society of Hematology
Year: 2024

description: Interplay between platelets, coagulation factors, endothelial cells (ECs) and fibrinolytic factors is necessary for effective hemostatic plug formation. This study describes a four-dimensional (4D) imaging platform to visualize and quantify hemostatic plug components in mice with high spatiotemporal resolution. Fibrin accumulation following laser-induced vascular injury was observed at the platelet plug-EC interface, controlled by the antagonistic balance between fibrin generation and breakdown. We observed less fibrin accumulation in mice expressing low levels of tissue factor (TFlow) or F12-/- mice compared to controls, whereas increased fibrin accumulation, including on the vasculature adjacent to the platelet plug, was observed in plasminogen-deficient mice or wild-type mice treated with tranexamic acid (TXA). Phosphatidylserine (PS), a membrane lipid critical for the assembly of coagulation factors, was first detected at the platelet plug-EC interface, followed by exposure across the endothelium. Impaired PS exposure resulted in a significant reduction in fibrin accumulation in cyclophilin D-/- mice. Adoptive transfer studies demonstrated a key role for PS exposure on platelets, and to a lesser degree on ECs, in fibrin accumulation during hemostatic plug formation. Together, these studies suggest that (1) platelets are the functionally dominant procoagulant cellular surface, and (2) plasmin is critical for limiting fibrin accumulation at the site of a forming hemostatic plug.
Modeling SILAC Data to Assess Protein Turnover in a Cellular Model of Diabetic Nephropathy
Creators: name: Arrigoni, Giorgio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: The files are Supplementary Information related to a manuscript entitled "Modeling SILAC Data to Assess Protein Turnover in a Cellular Model of Diabetic Nephropathy", which is currently under consideration for publication in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Data Acquisition and Control System for High-Performance Large-Area CCD Systems
Creators: name: Afanasieva, I. V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science (cs.CE)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Astronomical CCD systems based on second-generation DINACON controllers were developed at the SAO RAS Advanced Design Laboratory more than seven years ago and since then have been in constant operation at the 6-meter and Zeiss-1000 telescopes. Such systems use monolithic large-area CCDs. We describe the software developed for the control of a family of large-area CCD systems equipped with a DINACON-II controller. The software suite serves for acquisition, primary reduction, visualization, and storage of video data, and also for the control, setup, and diagnostics of the CCD system.
description: 6 pages, 5 figures
"This is My Lake Country": Wordsworth, Thoreau, and the Making of Modern Watershed Consciousness
Creators: name: Eidson, Mandy
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2014

description: In the first chapter of this thesis, “The One Life of Watersheds,” I challenge Scott Hess’s recent claim that Wordsworth and Thoreau promoted their native regions to the exclusion of other places. Although Wordsworth and Thoreau strongly identified with their local environs, they occupied a wide “terrain of consciousness” and encouraged environmental stewardship at a global scale (Berg and Dasmann 232). Wordsworth’s watershed consciousness emerged alongside his belief that the entire planet is alive, sacred, and conversant with humans. In Guide to the Lakes, Wordsworth depicts his native watershed as a vital ecosystem and provides a model of living in harmony with nature. Inspired by Wordsworth, Thoreau designated Concord as his own “lake country” (Walden 480), and he emphasized the importance of re-inhabiting the natural world and the inner psyche. In turn, readers have embraced Wordsworth’s and Thoreau’s models of watershed stewardship in faraway places and the most urban locales.
In the second and third chapters, I evaluate how Wordsworth and Thoreau defended their native watersheds against the incursion of railways and related industrial
developments during the mid-1840s. In “Protest Against the Wrong,” I outline how Wordsworth campaigned against the Kendal and Windermere Railway in 1844-45 by corresponding with high-level officials and by publishing widely-circulated poetry and prose. In response to longstanding criticism of Wordsworth’s protest, I show that Wordsworth opposed this scheme in the interest of economics, the environment, and equity (i.e., the “three E’s” of sustainability) long before the development of frameworks like IWRM. Although Wordsworth did not succeed in preventing the Kendal and Windermere Railway, he nonetheless provided a rounded environmental defense that better prepared later advocates to protect the Lakes.
While Wordsworth was campaigning against the Kendal and Windermere Railway, the Boston-to-Fitchburg Railroad was constructed in Massachusetts. This railway enabled industrialists to harvest ice at Walden Pond during the final winter of Thoreau’s residence there. In chapter three, “Too Pure to Have a Market Value,” I contextualize Thoreau’s reaction to this scheme with respect to his overarching sentiments about water extraction projects. In Walden, Thoreau expresses anxiety about the ice industry’s social and ecological impacts, and he concludes his remarks with a discussion of global interconnectedness. Like Wordsworth, Thoreau comments on the economic, environmental, and equity impacts of industrial developments, and he displays a far-reaching watershed consciousness – the very kind of mentality needed to confront modern environmental issues.
4-1BB-encoding CAR causes cell death via sequestration of the ubiquitin-modifying enzyme A20
Creators: name: Dotti, Gianpietro
name: Dou, Zhangqi
name: Herring, Laura E.
name: Wan, Yisong
name: Baldwin, Albert S.
name: Song, Feifei
name: Emanuele, Michael J.
name: Landoni, Elisa
name: Savoldo, Barbara
name: Zhou, Xin
name: Sun, Chuang
name: Woodcock, Mark G.
name: Shou, Peishun
name: Bonacci, Thomas Raphael
Publisher: name: Springer Nature
Year: 2024

description: CD28 and 4-1BB costimulatory endodomains included in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) molecules play a critical role in promoting sustained antitumor activity of CAR-T cells. However, the molecular events associated with the ectopic and constitutive display of either CD28 or 4-1BB in CAR-T cells have been only partially explored. In the current study, we demonstrated that 4-1BB incorporated within the CAR leads to cell cluster formation and cell death in the forms of both apoptosis and necroptosis in the absence of CAR tonic signaling. Mechanistic studies illustrate that 4-1BB sequesters A20 to the cell membrane in a TRAF-dependent manner causing A20 functional deficiency that in turn leads to NF-κB hyperactivity, cell aggregation via ICAM-1 overexpression, and cell death including necroptosis via RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL pathway. Genetic modulations obtained by either overexpressing A20 or releasing A20 from 4-1BB by deleting the TRAF-binding motifs of 4-1BB rescue cell cluster formation and cell death and enhance the antitumor ability of 4-1BB-costimulated CAR-T cells.
Can Anomalous Amplification be Attained Without Postselection?
Creators: name: Martínez-Rincón, Julián
name: Liu, Wei-Tao
name: Viza, Gerardo I.
name: Howell, John C.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present a parameter estimation technique based on performing joint measurements of a weak interaction away from the weak-value-amplification approximation. Two detectors are used to collect full statistics of the correlations between two weakly entangled degrees of freedom. Without the need of postselection, the protocol resembles the anomalous amplification of an imaginary-weak-value-like response. The amplification is induced in the difference signal of both detectors allowing robustness to different sources of technical noise, and offering in addition the advantages of balanced signals for precision metrology. All of the Fisher information about the parameter of interest is collected, and a phase controls the amplification response. We experimentally demonstrate the proposed technique by measuring polarization rotations in a linearly polarized laser pulse. The effective sensitivity and precision of a split detector is increased when compared to a conventional continuous-wave balanced detection technique.
Production of doubly heavy-flavored hadrons at $e^+e^-$ colliders
Creators: name: Zheng, Xu-Chang
name: Chang, Chao-Hsi
name: Pan, Zan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Production of the doubly heavy-flavored hadrons ($B_c$ meson, doubly heavy baryons $Ξ_{cc}$, $Ξ_{bc}$, $Ξ_{bb}$, their excited states and antiparticles of them as well) at $e^+e^-$ colliders is investigated under two different approaches: $LO$ (leading order QCD complete calculation) and $LL$ (leading logarithm fragmentation calculation). The results for the production obtained by the approaches $LO$ and $LL$, including the angle distributions of the produced hadrons with unpolarized and polarized incoming beams, the behaviors on the energy fraction of the produced doubly heavy hadron and comparisons between the two approaches' results, are presented in terms of tables and figures. Thus characteristics of the production and uncertainties of the approaches are shown precisely, and it is concluded that only if the colliders run at the eneries around $Z$-pole (which may be called as $Z$-factories) and additionally the luminosity of the colliders is as high as possible then to study the doubly heavy hadrons thoroughly is accessible.
description: 13 pages, 13 figures
Unilateral Periorbital Swelling in a Pediatric Patient
Creators: name: Herrera, Ana Rosas
name: Askin, Frederic
name: Monk, Aurelia S
name: Chaskes, Mark
name: Kimple, Adam J
name: Stephens, John R
name: Kong, Keonho A
name: Thorp, Brian D
name: Ebert, Charles S
name: Senior, Brent A
name: Parker, Ashley B
Publisher: name: SAGE Publications
Year: 2024

description: Infratemporal fossa (ITF) tumors are rare in children and may present with a variety of symptoms. Teratomas are neoplasms derived from the 3 germ layers and approximately 6% to 10% are within the head and neck. Our study discusses one of the first reported cases of teratoma in the ITF in a pediatric patient. A 3-year-old girl presents with 2 years of recurrent monthly left periorbital swelling accompanied by fevers, skin discoloration, and pain. Prior episodes were treated with antibiotics with incomplete resolution. Imaging revealed a cystic lesion centered in the ITF. She was taken for endoscopic endonasal biopsy of the lesion and had no complications. Pathology revealed a mature teratoma composed primarily of pancreatic tissue. Providers should consider masses such as teratoma in the differential for ITF tumors and periorbital edema unresponsive to typical treatment.
Equation of state for neutron stars with hyperons and quarks in relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation
Creators: name: Miyatsu, Tsuyoshi
name: Cheoun, Myung-Ki
name: Saito, Koichi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We construct the equation of state (EoS) for neutron stars explicitly including hyperons and quarks. Using the quark-meson coupling model with relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation, the EoS for hadronic matter is derived by taking into account the strange ($σ^{\ast}$ and $ϕ$) mesons as well as the light non-strange ($σ$, $ω$, $\vecπ$ and $\vecρ$) mesons. Relevant coupling constants are determined to reproduce the experimental data of nuclear matter and hypernuclei in SU(3) flavor symmetry. For quark matter, we employ the MIT bag model with one-gluon-exchange interaction, and Gibbs criteria for chemical equilibrium in the phase transition from hadrons to quarks. We find that the strange vector ($ϕ$) meson and the Fock contribution make the hadronic EoS stiff, and that the maximum mass of a neutron star can be consistent with the observed mass of heavy neutron stars even if the coexistence of hadrons and quarks takes place in the core. However, in the present calculation the transition to pure quark matter does not occur in stable neutron stars. Furthermore, the lower bound of the critical chemical potential of the quark-hadron transition at zero temperature turns out to be around 1.5 GeV in order to be consistent with the recent observed neutron star data.
description: 37 pages, 11 figures, 7 tables
A Sisyphean Task: Anti-Rape Activism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1970s-1990s
Creators: name: Foster, Margaret
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2015

description: My research indicates that over the last half century, anti-rape activism at UNC
went through four basic phases—-each demonstrating a pattern of tension between
students, activists and the University, all of whom were collectively struggling to define
and address the issue of sexual assault. By examining these different waves of anti-rape
activism at UNC, my thesis argues that inaccurate conceptions of campus rape and sexual
assault led to ineffective solutions that did not address the problem in its entirety. Indeed, the current seeming lack of any serious or visible progress in combatting sexual violence at UNC is a result of the school’s complicated history with rape and sexual assault: almost forty years of incorrectly diagnosing the problem, implementing superficial policies and security measures to combat the problem, failing to find a consistent definition of the problem, and failing to acknowledge and address the far-reaching roots of the problem. Thus, while the methods and goals of anti-rape activism have changed over the past four decades, the result – a continued sense of frustration and confusion preventing any substantial resolution – has stayed the same.
Open-Earth-Monitor: a cyberinfrastructure bringing together key open source developers in Europe
Creators: name: Hengl, Tomislav
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: open data
decision support system
earth observation
analysis ready
cloud optimized

description: Open Earth Monitor project funded by the Horizon-Europe programme of the European Commission (a consortium of 23 partners led by the OpenGeoHub foundation) aims at providing operational solutions and decision-making tools for European and global initiatives such as DestinE, Digital Twin Initiative, Fit for 55, UN sustainable development goals and more. It gathers some of the key Open source and Open Data developers in Europe including the teams behind OpenEO, EarthSystemDataLab.net, EcoDataCube.eu, xcube, OpenLandMap.org, R and Python spatial and spatiotemporal communities. The work is based on the three key developments principles: (1) user-oriented, user experience-designed data provision and apps, (2) a federated system allowing for diversity of designs and decentralised data storage, (3) serving ARCO (Analysis-Ready Cloud-Optimised) data. It is not trivial, however, to provide access to large data at low cost (not-for-profit) not to mention the computing costs needed to produce some useful results. Therefore, the consortium will try as much as possible to leverage existing infrastructures for code sharing (GitHub, GitLab and similar), public data repositories (Zenodo.org) and European Commission / ESA supported infrastructures such as OpenEO.cloud and similar.
Diffsig: Associating Risk Factors with Mutational Signatures
Creators: name: Smith, Markia A.
name: Troester, Melissa A.
name: Hoadley, Katherine A.
name: Van Alsten, Sarah C.
name: Walens, Andrea
name: Park, Ji-Eun
name: Wu, Di
name: Love, Michael I.
Publisher: name: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Year: 2024

description: BACKGROUND: Somatic mutational signatures elucidate molecular vulnerabilities to therapy, and therefore detecting signatures and classifying tumors with respect to signatures has clinical value. However, identifying the etiology of the mutational signatures remains a statistical challenge, with both small sample sizes and high variability in classification algorithms posing barriers. As a result, few signatures have been strongly linked to particular risk factors.
METHODS: Here, we develop a statistical model, Diffsig, for estimating the association of one or more continuous or categorical risk factors with DNA mutational signatures. Diffsig takes into account the uncertainty associated with assigning signatures to samples as well as multiple risk factors' simultaneous effect on observed DNA mutations.
RESULTS: We applied Diffsig to breast cancer data to assess relationships between five established breast-relevant mutational signatures and etiologic variables, confirming known mechanisms of cancer development. In simulation, our model was capable of accurately estimating expected associations in a variety of contexts.
CONCLUSIONS: Diffsig allows researchers to quantify and perform inference on the associations of risk factors with mutational signatures.
IMPACT: We expect Diffsig to provide more robust associations of risk factors with signatures to lead to better understanding of the tumor development process and improved models of tumorigenesis.
Reliable Adaptive Distributed Hyper Parameter Optimization (RadHPO) for Deep Learning Training and Uncertainty Estimation
Creators: name: Li, John
name: Pantoja, Maria
name: Fernández-Escribano, Gerardo
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 460605
subject: Distributed systems and algorithms

description: Training and validation of Neural Networks (NN) are very computationally intensive. In this paper, we propose a distributed system based NN infrastructure that achieves two goals: to accelerate model training, specifically for hyperparameter optimization, and to re-use some of these intermediate models to evaluate the uncertainty of the model. By accelerating model training, we can obtain a large set of potential models and compare them in a shorter amount of time. Automating this process reduces development time and provides an easy way to compare different models. Our application runs different models on distinct servers with a single training data set, each with tweaked hyperparameters. By adding uncertainty to our results, our framework provides not just a single prediction but a distribution over predictions. Adding uncertainty is essential to some NN applications since most models assume that the input data distributions are identical between test and validation. However, in reality, they are producing some catastrophic mistakes. Since our solution is a distributed system, we make our implementation robust to common distributed system failures (servers going down, loss of communication among some nodes, and others). Furthermore, we use a gossip-style heartbeat protocol for failure detection and recovery. Finally, some preliminary results using a black-box approach to generate the training models show that our infrastructure scales well in different hardware platforms.
title: Rising frames of Euroscepticism in Switzerland in times of crisis?
Creators: name: Pais Raposo, Stephanie
Year: 2023

description: In den letzten zehn Jahren hat die Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) Wahlkämpfe mit einer ausgeprägten Euroskepsis geführt. In dieser Arbeit soll der Einfluss der europäischen Flüchtlingskrise auf die euroskeptischen Einstellungen der SVP analysiert werden, insbesondere vor, während und nach der europäischen Flüchtlingskrise (2011-2020). Euroskepsis ist ein Merkmal, das häufig mit EU-Mitgliedstaaten in Verbindung gebracht wird, und die jüngste Literatur hat die Bedeutung von Krisen für den Anstieg der Euroskepsis hervorgehoben. Die Studie verwendet eine Diskursanalyse, die auf dem von Pirro und van Kessel (2018) entwickelten konzeptionellen Rahmen basiert, um den Rahmen des euroskeptischen Diskurses in den veröffentlichten Parteiprogrammen der SVP und anderen Ressourcen zu untersuchen. Der wichtige Beitrag dieser Studie besteht darin, die derzeitige Methodik zur Bewertung des Euroskeptizismus in EU-Mitgliedstaaten in Nicht-EU- Mitgliedstaaten zu testen und den in der akademischen Literatur unterrepräsentierten Euroskeptizismus in der SVP hervorzuheben. Diese Arbeit ist die erste umfassende Untersuchung der Rhetorik der SVP in Bezug auf Euroskepsis und zeigt einen Zusammenhang zwischen Krisen, Euroskepsis und Wahlverhalten auf.
description: In the past ten years, the Swiss People's Party (SVP) has run election campaigns with a distinct Euroscepticism. This thesis seeks to analyze the impact of the European refugee crisis on the Eurosceptic frames of the SVP, specifically before, during, and after the European refugee crisis (2011-2020). Euroscepticism is a characteristic often associated with EU member states and recent literature has underscored the importance of crisis in the rise of Euroscepticism. The study will employ a discourse analysis based on the conceptual framework created by Pirro and van Kessel (2018) to investigate the frames of Eurosceptic discourse within the SVP's published party programs and other resources. The important contribution of this study is the testing of the current methodology for assessing Euroscepticism in EU member states in non-EU member states, as well as highlighting the Euroscepticism found in the SVP, which is underrepresented in academic literature. This thesis is the first comprehensive investigation of the SVP’s rhetoric in regard to Euroscepticism and identifies a link between crises, Euroscepticism, and voting behavior.
Differential endothelial cell cycle status in postnatal retinal vessels revealed using a novel PIP-FUCCI reporter and zonation analysis
Creators: name: Liu, Ziqing
name: Tanke, Natalie T.
name: Neal, Alexandra
name: Sharma, Arya
name: Cook, Jean G.
name: Yu, Tianji
name: Branch, Tershona
name: Bautch, Victoria L.
Publisher: name: Springer Nature
Year: 2024

description: Cell cycle regulation is critical to blood vessel formation and function, but how the endothelial cell cycle integrates with vascular regulation is not well-understood, and available dynamic cell cycle reporters do not precisely distinguish all cell cycle stage transitions in vivo. Here we characterized a recently developed improved cell cycle reporter (PIP-FUCCI) that precisely delineates S phase and the S/G2 transition. Live image analysis of primary endothelial cells revealed predicted temporal changes and well-defined stage transitions. A new inducible mouse cell cycle reporter allele was selectively expressed in postnatal retinal endothelial cells upon Cre-mediated activation and predicted endothelial cell cycle status. We developed a semi-automated zonation program to define endothelial cell cycle status in spatially defined and developmentally distinct retinal areas and found predicted cell cycle stage differences in arteries, veins, and remodeled and angiogenic capillaries. Surprisingly, the predicted dearth of S-phase proliferative tip cells relative to stalk cells at the vascular front was accompanied by an unexpected enrichment for endothelial tip and stalk cells in G2, suggesting G2 stalling as a contribution to tip-cell arrest and dynamics at the front. Thus, this improved reporter precisely defines endothelial cell cycle status in vivo and reveals novel G2 regulation that may contribute to unique aspects of blood vessel network expansion.
Studying the functions of Polychaetoid/ZO-1 and Canoe/Afadin in Drosophila embryogenesis
Creators: name: Blom, Zachary
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2014

description: Most complex organisms begin life as a single cell that must extensively proliferate and organize tissues and organs through morphogenesis to become an animal or plant. For this process to correctly function, cells must dynamically adhere and move in a strictly regulated manner. The importance of proteins regulating cell-cell adhesion and actin cytoskeleton linkage has been well documented. The purpose of my research was to study the morphogenetic role of Canoe (Cno; homologue of mammalian afadin) and Polychaetoid (Pyd; homologue of mammalian ZO-1), two Drosophila proteins that link the actin cytoskeleton to adhesion molecules. I tested the hypothesis that these proteins have a vital role in morphogenesis, and that mutants lacking both will show abnormal phenotypes. I looked at cell shape and cellular junction organization, as well as other features to characterize phenotypes of mutant flies. Our results suggest embryos lacking both Cno and Pyd exhibit cell polarity disruptions, epithelial cell disorganization, cell shape irregularities, and embryonic lethality, suggesting a vital role for these proteins. These results help establish new understanding of how and where these proteins and their mammalian homologues function in morphogenesis and provide a basis for future studies.
Liver regulatory mechanisms of noncoding variants at lipid and metabolic trait loci
Creators: name: McAfee, Jessica C.
name: Vadlamudi, Swarooparani
name: Broadaway, K. Alaine
name: Mohlke, Karen L.
name: Currin, Kevin W.
name: Moxley, Anne H.
name: Nicholas, Jayna C.
name: Pandey, Gautam K.
Publisher: name: Elsevier
Year: 2024

description: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified hundreds of risk loci for liver disease and lipid-related metabolic traits, although identifying their target genes and molecular mechanisms remains challenging. We predicted target genes at GWAS signals by integrating them with molecular quantitative trait loci for liver gene expression (eQTL) and liver chromatin accessibility QTL (caQTL). We predicted specific regulatory caQTL variants at four GWAS signals located near EFHD1, LITAF, ZNF329, and GPR180. Using transcriptional reporter assays, we determined that caQTL variants rs13395911, rs11644920, rs34003091, and rs9556404 exhibit allelic differences in regulatory activity. We also performed a protein binding assay for rs13395911 and found that FOXA2 differentially interacts with the alleles of rs13395911. For variants rs13395911 and rs11644920 in putative enhancer regulatory elements, we used CRISPRi to demonstrate that repression of the enhancers altered the expression of the predicted target and/or nearby genes. Repression of the element at rs13395911 reduced the expression of EFHD1, and repression of the element at rs11644920 reduced the expression of LITAF, SNN, and TXNDC11. Finally, we showed that EFHD1 is a metabolically active gene in HepG2 cells. Together, these results provide key steps to connect genetic variants with cellular mechanisms and help elucidate the causes of liver disease.
Determining the local dark matter density with LAMOST data
Creators: name: Xia, Qiran
name: Liu, Chao
name: Mao, Shude
name: Song, Yingyi
name: Zhang, Lan
name: Long, R. J.
name: Zhang, Yong
name: Hou, Yonghui
name: Wang, Yuefei
name: Wu, Yue
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Measurement of the local dark matter density plays an important role in both Galactic dynamics and dark matter direct detection experiments. However, the estimated values from previous works are far from agreeing with each other. In this work, we provide a well-defined observed sample with 1427 G \& K type main-sequence stars from the LAMOST spectroscopic survey, taking into account selection effects, volume completeness, and the stellar populations. We apply a vertical Jeans equation method containing a single exponential stellar disk, a razor thin gas disk, and a constant dark matter density distribution to the sample, and obtain a total surface mass density of $\rm {78.7 ^{+3.9}_{-4.7}\ M_{\odot}\ pc^{-2}}$ up to 1 kpc and a local dark matter density of $0.0159^{+0.0047}_{-0.0057}\,\rm M_{\odot}\,\rm pc^{-3}$. We find that the sampling density (i.e. number of stars per unit volume) of the spectroscopic data contributes to about two-thirds of the uncertainty in the estimated values. We discuss the effect of the tilt term in the Jeans equation and find it has little impact on our measurement. Other issues, such as a non-equilibrium component due to perturbations and contamination by the thick disk population, are also discussed.
description: 11 pages, 10 figures
Combination of polymeric micelle formulation of TGFβ receptor inhibitors and paclitaxel produces consistent response across different mouse models of Triple‐negative breast cancer
Creators: name: Ezzell, J. Ashley
name: Livingston, Eric E.
name: Vinod, Natasha
name: Kabanov, Alexander V.
name: Rädler, Patrick D.
name: Benefield, Thad S.
name: Owens, Tyler Cannon
name: Fussell, Sloane Christian
name: Hwang, Duhyeong
name: Atkins, Hannah M.
name: Ramsey, Jacob D.
name: Copling, Sage
name: Yuan, Hong
name: Perou, Charles M.
name: Sokolsky‐Papkov, Marina
name: Tofade, Olaoluwa Christopher
Publisher: name: Wiley
Year: 2024

description: Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is notoriously difficult to treat due to the lack of targetable receptors and sometimes poor response to chemotherapy. The transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) family of proteins and their receptors (TGFRs) are highly expressed in TNBC and implicated in chemotherapy‐induced cancer stemness. Here, we evaluated combination treatments using experimental TGFR inhibitors (TGFβi), SB525334 (SB), and LY2109761 (LY) with paclitaxel (PTX) chemotherapy. These TGFβi target TGFR‐I (SB) or both TGFR‐I and TGFR‐II (LY). Due to the poor water solubility of these drugs, we incorporated each of them in poly(2‐oxazoline) (POx) high‐capacity polymeric micelles (SB‐POx and LY‐POx). We assessed their anticancer effect as single agents and in combination with micellar PTX (PTX‐POx) using multiple immunocompetent TNBC mouse models that mimic human subtypes (4T1, T11‐Apobec and T11‐UV). While either TGFβi or PTX showed a differential effect in each model as single agents, the combinations were consistently effective against all three models. Genetic profiling of the tumors revealed differences in the expression levels of genes associated with TGFβ, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), TLR‐4, and Bcl2 signaling, alluding to the susceptibility to specific gene signatures to the treatment. Taken together, our study suggests that TGFβi and PTX combination therapy using high‐capacity POx micelle delivery provides a robust antitumor response in multiple TNBC subtype mouse models.