cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Balance Between Estrogen Receptor Mediated Cell Proliferation and Genomic Surveillance
Creators: name: Brown, Margarita
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death. Lifetime exposure to estrogen contributes to this risk but high dose estrogen has been used to induce apoptosis as treatment for breast cancer. These opposing tumorigenic and anti-tumorigenic effects of estrogen may be regulated differently by the two Estrogen Receptors (ER), Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα) and Estrogen Receptor beta (ERβ). Although the receptors share a 96% homology in their DNA binding domain, they are unique in the ligand-binding domain with 53% amino acid homology. Previous studies have shown that ERα drives cell proliferation in the mammary gland. We propose that ERβ mediates genomic surveillance in the mammary gland to restrict proliferation. To test this hypothesis we first characterized each of our reference breast cancer cell lines to determine the ERα and ERβstatus. We found that ERβ transcript and protein are expressed in some breast cancer cell lines that are considered to be “triple-negative” (HCC1937 and MDA MB 231). Using specific ER agonists, we were able to demonstrate that amphiregulin, a secreted protein and a marker of ERα activation, is upregulated by ERα agonists in a dose dependent manner in cell lines that have ERα (T47D & MCF7). ERα agonists do not enhance AREG expression in cell lines that primarily expresses ERβ (HCC1937). Instead, CEBPd, a tumor suppressor, is expressed at high levels in this cell line. In conclusion, targeting ERβ has the potential to selectively activate tumor suppressor pathways without stimulating proliferation and may provide a treatment option for patients for whom inhibition of ERa is not an option.
Magnetic-field-induced collapse of charge-ordered nanoclusters and the Colossal Magnetoresistance effect in Nd(0.3)Sr(0.3)MnO(3)
Creators: name: Koo, T. Y.
name: Kiryukhin, V.
name: Sharma, P. A.
name: Hill, J. P.
name: Cheong, S-W.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2001
Subjects: subject: Condensed Matter (cond-mat)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report synchrotron x-ray scattering studies of charge/orbitally ordered (COO) nanoclusters in Nd$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$. We find that the COO nanoclusters are strongly suppressed in an applied magnetic field, and that their decreasing concentration follows the field-induced decrease of the sample electrical resistivity. The COO nanoclusters, however, do not completely disappear in the conducting state, suggesting that this state is inhomogeneous and contains an admixture of an insulating phase. Similar results were also obtained for the zero-field insulator-metal transition that occurs as temperature is reduced. These observations suggest that these correlated lattice distortions play a key role in the Colossal Magnetoresistance effect in this prototypical manganite.
description: 5 pages, 3 embedded eps figures; to appear in PRB Rapid Commumications
Effects of Butylparaben Exposure on Pancreatic Development in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos
Creators: name: Brown, Sarah E
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: Butylparaben (Butyl p-hydroxybenzoic acid) is a widely used cosmetic and pharmaceutical preservative that has been recently shown to induce oxidative stress and have endocrine disrupting effects in rodents, and promote adipocyte conversion of human adipose cells. Embryonic development is extremely sensitive to oxidative stress due to changes in cell growth, development and differentiation that occur during this life stage. Fluctuations in redox potentials play critical roles in normal embryonic development by guiding these cell signaling, cell-fate decisions and apoptosis. The most prevalent endogenous antioxidant that defends against oxidative stress is glutathione (GSH), which scavenges reactive oxygen species. The low antioxidant capacity of pancreatic beta cells suggests that they are sensitive target tissues of oxidative stress; this has yet to be investigated during embryonic development. Here, we aim to 1) determine whether embryonic exposure to butylparaben prompts structural and functional changes in the developing endocrine pancreas and 2) determine whether oxidative stress may be involved. Transgenic insulin-GFP zebrafish embryos were treated daily with 250, 500, 1,000 and 3,000 nM butylparaben starting at 3 hours post fertilization (hpf). Pancreatic islet and whole embryo morphological development were examined daily until 7 days post fertilization (dpf). Redox potentials were measured at 24 and 28 hpf using HPLC. Area of the pancreatic islet increased over time with increasing butylparaben exposure in a dose-dependent manner by as much as a 55% increase in islet area at 3 dpf when compared to controls. Butylparaben concentrations of 500 and 1,000 nM increased GSH by 10 and 40%, respectively, and decreased oxidized glutathione disulfide by 37 and 59%. GSH redox potentials were only significant in embryos collected at 28 hpf and became more reduced with 500 and 1,000 nM butylparaben exposure, decreasing redox potentials by 7 and 18 mV, respectively. Cysteine redox potentials also became more reduced, decreasing by 17 and 28 mV. Our data show that butylparaben-induced redox potential disruptions that may be responsible for the effects on pancreatic islet structure and function, but further studies are needed to determine how and if that directly affects pancreas development.
Parton Production Via Vacuum Polarization
Creators: name: Dietrich, Dennis D.
name: Nayak, Gouranga C.
name: Greiner, Walter
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We discuss the production mechanism of partons via vacuum polarization during the very early, gluon dominated phase of an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision in the framework of the background field method of quantum chromodynamics.
description: 3 pages, Latex, 3 figures (eps), to be published in JPhysG, SQM2001 proceedings
Casimir energy in multiply connected static hyperbolic Universes
Creators: name: Muller, D.
name: Fagundes, H. V.
name: Opher, R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We generalize a previously obtained result, for the case of a few other static hyperbolic universes with manifolds of nontrivial topology as spatial sections.
description: accepted for publication
Evaluation of the association of heterozygous germline variants in NTHL1 with breast cancer predisposition: an international multi-center study of 47,180 subjects
Creators: name: Li, Na
name: Zethoven, Magnus
name: McInerny, Simone
name: Devereux, Lisa
name: Huang, Yu-Kuan
name: Thio, Niko
name: Cheasley, Dane
name: Gutiérrez-Enríquez, Sara
name: Moles-Fernández, Alejandro
name: Diez, Orland
name: Nguyen-Dumont, Tu
name: Southey, Melissa C.
name: Hopper, John L.
name: Simard, Jacques
name: Dumont, Martine
name: Soucy, Penny
name: Meindl, Alfons
name: Schmutzler, Rita
name: Schmidt, Marjanka K.
name: Adank, Muriel A.
name: Andrulis, Irene L.
name: Hahnen, Eric
name: Engel, Christoph
name: Lesueur, Fabienne
name: Girard, Elodie
name: Neuhausen, Susan L.
name: Ziv, Elad
name: Allen, Jamie
name: Easton, Douglas F.
name: Scott, Rodney J.
name: Gorringe, Kylie L.
name: James, Paul A.
name: Campbell, Ian G.
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2021
Subjects: Article
/631/67/69
/631/208/737
/631/208/68
/631/67/1347
/631/208/199
article

description: Abstract: Bi-allelic loss-of-function (LoF) variants in the base excision repair (BER) gene NTHL1 cause a high-risk hereditary multi-tumor syndrome that includes breast cancer, but the contribution of heterozygous variants to hereditary breast cancer is unknown. An analysis of 4985 women with breast cancer, enriched for familial features, and 4786 cancer-free women revealed significant enrichment for NTHL1 LoF variants. Immunohistochemistry confirmed reduced NTHL1 expression in tumors from heterozygous carriers but the NTHL1 bi-allelic loss characteristic mutational signature (SBS 30) was not present. The analysis was extended to 27,421 breast cancer cases and 19,759 controls from 10 international studies revealing 138 cases and 93 controls with a heterozygous LoF variant (OR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.82–1.39) and 316 cases and 179 controls with a missense variant (OR 1.31, 95% CI: 1.09–1.57). Missense variants selected for deleterious features by a number of in silico bioinformatic prediction tools or located within the endonuclease III functional domain showed a stronger association with breast cancer. Somatic sequencing of breast cancers from carriers indicated that the risk associated with NTHL1 appears to operate through haploinsufficiency, consistent with other described low-penetrance breast cancer genes. Data from this very large international multicenter study suggests that heterozygous pathogenic germline coding variants in NTHL1 may be associated with low- to moderate- increased risk of breast cancer.
Momenta
Creators: name: Waliya, Yohanna Joseph
Publisher: name: Vispo
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Poetry
subject: Twenty-first century
subject: Digital humanities

description: Momenta is a digital poem for Africans. It is written in two languages-French and English. The poem aims at bringing hope in the continent.

Momenta est un poème numérique pour les Africains. Il est rédigé en deux langues-anglais et français. Le poème excite l'esproir.
Omega, J/psi and psi' Transverse Mass Spectra at RHIC
Creators: name: Bugaev, K. A.
name: Gazdzicki, M.
name: Gorenstein, M. I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The transverse mass spectra of J/psi and psi' mesons and Omega hyperons produced in central Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies are discussed within a statistical model used successfully for the interpretation of the SPS results. The comparison of the presented model with the future RHIC data should serve as a further crucial test of the hypothesis of statistical production of charmonia at hadronization. Finally, in case of validity, the approach should allow to estimate the mean transverse flow velocity at the quark gluon plasma hadronization.
description: revised version to appear in Phys. Lett. B
The shapes of spiral arms in the S$^4$G survey and their connection with stellar bars
Creators: name: Díaz-García, Simón
name: Salo, Heikki
name: Knapen, Johan H.
name: Herrera-Endoqui, Martín
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Spiral galaxies are common in the local Universe, but their formation, evolution, and interplay with bars remain poorly understood. We use a sample of 391 nearby galaxies from the S$^4$G survey to characterise the winding angle and amplitude of spiral arms as a function of disc properties, such as bar strength, in all kinds of spirals (grand-design, multi-armed, and flocculent). We derive global pitch angles in 3.6 $μ$m de-projected images from i) average measurements of individual logarithmic spiral segments, and ii) for a subsample of 32 galaxies, from 2-D Fourier analyses. The strength of spirals is quantified from the tangential-to-radial force ratio and from the normalised $m=2$ Fourier density amplitudes. In galaxies with more than one measured logarithmic segment, the spiral pitch angle varies on average by $\sim 10^{\circ}$ between segments, but by up to $\gtrsim 15-20^{\circ}$. The distribution of the global pitch angle versus Hubble type ($T$) is very similar for barred and non-barred galaxies when $1 \lesssim T \lesssim 5$. Most spiral galaxies ($>90\%$) are barred for $T>5$. The pitch angle is not correlated with bar strength, and only weakly with spiral strength. The amplitude of spirals is correlated with bar strength (and less tightly, with bar length) for all types of spirals. The mean pitch angle is hardly correlated with the mass of the supermassive black hole (estimated from central stellar velocity dispersion), with central stellar mass concentration, or with shear, questioning previous results in the literature using smaller samples. We do not find observational evidence that spiral arms are driven by stellar bars or by invariant manifolds. Most likely, disks that are prone to the development of strong bars are also reactive to the formation of prominent spirals, explaining the observed coupling between bar and spiral amplitudes (Abridged).
description: Accepted for publication in A&A (August 12, 2019). 18 pages, 19 figures, 4 tables, plus appendices (11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table)
Planning [and] the Sanitary City: Understanding Implications of Community-Based Ecological Sanitation Reforms in the U.S.
Creators: name: Bryars, Catherine K
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: Though most commonly regarded as a revolutionary public health invention, the introduction of conventional wastewater sanitation systems has a mixed legacy in the U.S. A growing body of research links sewage-based sanitation systems with nationwide ecosystem degradation and an unsustainable dependence on vast inputs of materials and resources. In addition to contributing to chronic problems across the country, today these wastewater infrastructures are in various states of disrepair. The EPA estimates that at least $270 billion must be invested in coming years to prevent massive sanitary failures, but municipalities are increasingly unable to fund these expensive (re)investments in buried water-carriage sanitation infrastructures.
Some U.S. communities are exploring the potential for community-scale decentralized sustainable or ecological sanitation (ecosan) solutions to meet their sanitary needs at a fraction of the cost of wastewater treatment schemes and with various additional benefits. This thesis examines the first two pilot applications of community ecosan in the New England region of the U.S. to understand the opportunities, challenges, and adaptation strategies that characterize these projects in the North American context.
An emergent, mixed methods approach was developed over several years and involved personal engagement with the cases reviewed. The two pilot projects are compared and contrasted, and several themes are identified: First, the case studies indicate that specific conditions may have provided fertile contexts for the introduction of community-scale ecosan in the U.S. Second, various challenges have been posed to large scale ecosan projects in the U.S, but existing sanitary regulations and funding pathways present the most formidable barriers since they often deter innovative solutions. Third, these cases show that communities can develop myriad strategies to overcome these challenges and confront barriers to sanitation reform in the U.S.
The study is framed by an inquiry into the role of professional planners and local community members in sustainable sanitation reforms. Findings indicate that individual planners can react both positively and negatively to proposals for community ecosan schemes, and that planners possess numerous tools to support community-led programs in navigating the significant barriers they face. Ultimately, though, communities must practice self-determination in sanitation reform planning. Final recommendations suggest that future community ecosan projects focus on incremental and complementary introduction, integrate research components, and incorporate effective ecosan residuals management schemes into their programming.
Cold Gas Dynamic Spray – Characterization of Polymeric Deposition
Creators: name: Bush, Trenton
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: When a solid, ductile particle impacts a substrate at sufficient velocity, the resulting heat, pressure, and plastic deformation can produce bonding at the interface. The use of a supersonic gas flow to accelerate such particles is known as Cold Spray deposition. The Cold Spray process has been commercialized for some metallic materials, but further research is required to unlock the exciting material properties possible with polymeric compounds. In this work, a combined computational and experimental study a) simulated and optimized the nozzle flow conditions necessary to produce bonding in a polyethylene particle, b) developed and fabricated an experimental device, and c) explored temperature-pressure space across a range of substrate materials, resolving a material dependent ‘window of deposition’ where successful coatings form. Insights into bonding mechanisms are discussed, and paths forward proposed.
Euclidean simplices and invariants of three-manifolds: a modification of the invariant for lens spaces
Creators: name: Martyushev, Evgeniy V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: Algebraic Topology (math.AT)
subject: Geometric Topology (math.GT)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: We propose a modification of the three-manifold invariant based on the use of Euclidean metric values ascribed to the elements of manifold triangulation. We thus obtain a nontrivial invariant that can, in particular, distinguish non-homeomorphic lens spaces.
description: 20 pages, 3 figures
Paracoccus denitrificans: a genetically tractable model system for studying respiratory complex I
Creators: name: Jarman, Owen D.
name: Biner, Olivier
name: Wright, John J.
name: Hirst, Judy
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2021
Subjects: Article
/631/57/1464
/631/45/607
/631/45/607/1168
/631/45
/631/45/612/1237
/631/45/612/1141
/631/45/612/1240
article

description: Abstract: Mitochondrial complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is a crucial metabolic enzyme that couples the free energy released from NADH oxidation and ubiquinone reduction to the translocation of four protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane, creating the proton motive force for ATP synthesis. The mechanism by which the energy is captured, and the mechanism and pathways of proton pumping, remain elusive despite recent advances in structural knowledge. Progress has been limited by a lack of model systems able to combine functional and structural analyses with targeted mutagenic interrogation throughout the entire complex. Here, we develop and present the α-proteobacterium Paracoccus denitrificans as a suitable bacterial model system for mitochondrial complex I. First, we develop a robust purification protocol to isolate highly active complex I by introducing a His6-tag on the Nqo5 subunit. Then, we optimize the reconstitution of the enzyme into liposomes, demonstrating its proton pumping activity. Finally, we develop a strain of P. denitrificans that is amenable to complex I mutagenesis and create a catalytically inactive variant of the enzyme. Our model provides new opportunities to disentangle the mechanism of complex I by combining mutagenesis in every subunit with established interrogative biophysical measurements on both the soluble and membrane bound enzymes.
Can ICARUS and OPERA ν_τ appearance experiments detect new flavor physics ?
Creators: name: Ota, Toshihiko
name: Sato, Joe
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In this letter we explore whether we have a chance to observe a flavor-changing effect in $τ$ appearance experiments ICARUS and OPERA.
description: 10 pages including 3 eps files. We added the comments on the variation of the oscillation parameters and revised the discussion on models
Optoelectronic mixing with high-frequency graphene transistors
Creators: name: Montanaro, A.
name: Wei, W.
name: De Fazio, D.
name: Sassi, U.
name: Soavi, G.
name: Aversa, P.
name: Ferrari, A. C.
name: Happy, H.
name: Legagneux, P.
name: Pallecchi, E.
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2021
Subjects: Article
/639/624
/639/624/399/918/1054
article

description: Abstract: Graphene is ideally suited for optoelectronics. It offers absorption at telecom wavelengths, high-frequency operation and CMOS-compatibility. We show how high speed optoelectronic mixing can be achieved with high frequency (~20 GHz bandwidth) graphene field effect transistors (GFETs). These devices mix an electrical signal injected into the GFET gate and a modulated optical signal onto a single layer graphene (SLG) channel. The photodetection mechanism and the resulting photocurrent sign depend on the SLG Fermi level (EF). At low EF (<130 meV), a positive photocurrent is generated, while at large EF (>130 meV), a negative photobolometric current appears. This allows our devices to operate up to at least 67 GHz. Our results pave the way for GFETs optoelectronic mixers for mm-wave applications, such as telecommunications and radio/light detection and ranging (RADAR/LIDARs.)
Double parton distribution of valence quarks in the pion in chiral quark models
Creators: name: Broniowski, Wojciech
name: Arriola, Enrique Ruiz
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The valence double parton distribution of the pion is analyzed in the framework of chiral quark models, where in the chiral limit factorization between the longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom occurs. This feature leads, at the quark-model scale, to a particularly simple distribution of the form $D(x_1,x_2, \vec{q}) = δ(1-x_1-x_2) F(\vec{q})$, where $x_{1,2}$ are the longitudinal momentum fractions carried the valence quark and antiquark and $\vec{q}$ is their relative transverse momentum. For $\vec{q}=\vec{0}$ this result complies immediately to the Gaunt-Sterling sum rules. The DGLAP evolution to higher scales is carried out in terms of the Mellin moments. We then explore its role on the longitudinal correlation quantified with the ratio of the double distribution to the product of single distributions, $D(x_1,x_2, \vec{q}=\vec{0})/D(x_1)D(x_2)$. We point out that the ratios of moments $\langle x_1^n x_2^m \rangle / \langle x_1^n \rangle \langle x_2^m \rangle $ are independent of the evolution, providing particularly suitable measures to be tested in the upcoming lattice simulations. The transverse form factor $F(\vec{q})$ and its Fourier conjugate in the relative transverse coordinate $\vec{b}$ are obtained in variants of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with the spectral and Pauli-Villars regularizations.The results are valid in the soft-momentum domain. Interestingly, with the spectral regularization of the model, the effective cross section for the double parton scattering of pions is exactly equal to the geometric cross section, $σ_{\rm eff}=π\langle \vec{b}^2 \rangle$ and yields about 20~mb.
description: discussion added, typos corrected, 12 pages, 6 figures
The EU-Turkey Energy Relations After the 2014 Ukraine Crisis. Enhancing The Partnership in a Rapidly Changing Environment
Creators: name: Tagliapietra, Simone
name: Tagliapietra, Simone
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Environmental Economics and Policy
subject: International Relations/Trade
subject: EU-Turkey Energy Relations
subject: EU Energy Security
subject: Southern Gas Corridor

description: Over the last two decades energy has emerged as an increasingly important component of the overall EU-Turkey relations. In particular, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) and its flagship project, Nabucco, soon became the pivotal element of the EU-Turkey energy relations. After years of strong cooperation, the failure of Nabucco and the emergence of TANAP have ultimately outlined a divergence in the way the EU and Turkey perceive not only the SGC but also their energy relations. This divergence represents a serious risk for the strategic interests of both the EU and Turkey, and for this reason there is a need to rethink the EU-Turkey energy relations. This need is now particularly urgent, as the market and political environment on which Nabucco was conceptualized is rapidly changing, potentially opening up new opportunities of energy cooperation for the EU and Turkey. On the supply side, new major gas reserves have been discovered in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and in offshore Israel, while on the demand side the unprecedented political standoff between the Western world and Russia resulted by the 2014 Ukraine crisis might reinvigorate the EU’s quest to diversify its gas supply portfolio. These developments can potentially converge to reshape the EU-Turkey energy relations. In fact, in this scenario the SGC could eventually gain a new momentum, with the gas reserves of the KRI and Israel as primary target. However, after the failure of Nabucco the unconditional support of Turkey should not be taken for granted by the EU, as the country might prefer to secure its own energy supply on a bilateral basis with gas producing countries. In order to avoid the risk of a further fragmentation of the SGC, a new “EU-Turkey Natural Gas Initiative” -such as the one proposed in this paper- seems to be urgently needed, for the benefit of both the EU and Turkey.
Nonlinear reserving and multiple contract modifications in life insurance
Creators: name: Christiansen, Marcus C.
name: Djehiche, Boualem
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Finance (q-fin.MF)
subject: FOS: Economics and business
subject: 60H10, 91B30

description: Life insurance cash flows become reserve dependent when contract conditions are modified during the contract term on condition that actuarial equivalence is maintained. As a result, insurance cash flows and prospective reserves depend on each other in a circular way, and it is a non-trivial problem to solve that circularity and make cash flows and prospective reserves well-defined. In Markovian models, the (stochastic) Thiele equation and the Cantelli Theorem are the standard tools for solving the circularity issue and for maintaining actuarial equivalence. This paper expands the stochastic Thiele equation and the Cantelli Theorem to non-Markovian frameworks and presents a recursive scheme for the calculation of multiple contract modifications.
Re-examination of orbital ordering in LaMnO$_3$: Electron-electron and electron-lattice interactions
Creators: name: Okamoto, Satoshi
name: Ishihara, Sumio
name: Maekawa, Sadamichi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2001
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The interactions between $e_g$ orbitals in neighboring sites are investigated in LaMnO$_3$ by taking into account virtual exchange of electrons and phonons. The spin and orbital ordering temperatures and the spin wave dispersion relation are calculated. We find that the orbital ordering is mainly caused by the electronic interactions and that the Jahn-Teller coupling is much smaller than that reported previously. We propose that the elastic constant shows a characteristic change at the N{é}el temperature by the spin and orbital coupling and the higher-order Jahn-Teller coupling.
description: 9 pages, 5 figures
The Role of MicroRNAs in Regulating the Translatability and Stability of Target Messenger RNAs During the Atrophy and Programmed Cell Death of the Intersegmental Muscles of the Tobacco Hawkmoth Manduca sexta.
Creators: name: Chan, Elizabeth
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: A variety of diseases lead to the atrophy and/or death of skeletal muscle. To better understand the molecular mechanisms that mediate these processes, I have taken advantage of the intersegmental muscles (ISMs) of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta, which undergo sequential programs of atrophy and programmed cell death at the end of metamorphosis. ISM death is mediated by changes in gene expression and numerous cell-death associated transcripts have been identified. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small (~22 nucleotide) non-coding RNAs that bind to sequences in messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and either cause translational arrest or mRNA degradation. To test the hypothesis that developmentally regulated miRs may control the stability and/or translatability of target mRNAs in the ISMs, putative mRNA targets for the test miRs have been identified and their 3’ untranslated region (UTR) have been cloned into a dual luciferase reporter plasmid. The microRNA mir-92b binds to the 3’ UTR of the Small Cytoplasmic Leucine Rich repeat Protein (SCLP) mRNA. Expression of miR-92b declines during development and SCLP expression increases with the commitment to die. I found that the miR-92b inhibits luciferase mRNA translation (spectrophotometric plate assays), but does not lead to transcript degradation (quantitative polymerase chain reaction; qPCR). miR-92 plays a survival role in several mammalian tissues and is repressed in two types of cardiomyopathy. Consequently, understanding how miRs regulate mRNA translation and stability may provide a better understanding of the regulation of muscle atrophy and death as well as provide novel tools for diagnostics or therapeutics.
Hadron Formation in DIS in a nuclear environment
Creators: name: Muccifora, Valeria
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2001
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The influence of the nuclear medium on the production of charged hadrons in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering has been studied by the HERMES experiment at DESY using 27.5 GeV positrons. A substantial reduction of the multiplicity of charged hadrons and identified charged pions from nuclei relative to that from deuterium has been measured as function of the relevant kinematic variables. The preliminary results on krypton show a larger reduction of the multiplicity ratio $R_M^{h}$ with respect to the one previously measured on nitrogen and suggest a possible modification of the quark fragmentation process in the nuclear environment.
description: 5 pages, 5 figures, Proceeding of DIS 2001, IX International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering Bologna, 27 April-1 May 2001
MOESM2 of Patient and health care system characteristics are associated with delayed treatment of tuberculosis cases in Taiwan
Creators: name: Chien-Chou Chen
name: Po-Huang Chiang
name: Yen-Hsu Chen
name: I-Chun Fan
name: Ta-Chien Chan
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Cell Biology
subject: Biotechnology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 19999 Mathematical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: Cancer
subject: 110309 Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 2: Figure S1. Kaplan Meir plots (direct adjusted) for health system delay by risk factors
All static spherically symmetric perfect fluid solutions of Einstein's Equations
Creators: name: Lake, Kayll
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: An algorithm based on the choice of a single monotone function (subject to boundary conditions) is presented which generates all regular static spherically symmetric perfect fluid solutions of Einstein's equations. For physically relevant solutions the generating functions must be restricted by non-trivial integral-differential inequalities. Nonetheless, the algorithm is demonstrated here by the construction of an infinite number of previously unknown physically interesting exact solutions.
description: Final form to appear in Phys Rev D. Includes a number of clarifications
A New Parametrization of the Seesaw Mechanism and Applications in Supersymmetric Models
Creators: name: Ellis, John
name: Hisano, Junji
name: Raidal, Martti
name: Shimizu, Yasuhiro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2002
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present a new parametrization of the minimal seesaw model, expressing the heavy-singlet neutrino Dirac Yukawa couplings $(Y_ν)_{ij}$ and Majorana masses $M_{N_i}$ in terms of effective light-neutrino observables and an auxiliary Hermitian matrix $H.$ In the minimal supersymmetric version of the seesaw model, the latter can be related directly to other low-energy observables, including processes that violate charged lepton flavour and CP. This parametrization enables one to respect the stringent constraints on muon-number violation while studying the possible ranges for other observables by scanning over the allowed parameter space of the model. Conversely, if any of the lepton-flavour-violating process is observed, this measurement can be used directly to constrain $(Y_ν)_{ij}$ and $M_{N_i}.$ As applications, we study flavour-violating $τ$ decays and the electric dipole moments of leptons in the minimal supersymmetric seesaw model.
description: Important references added
Patient-Therapist Convergence in Alliance and Session Progress Ratings as Predictors of Outcome in Psychotherapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Creators: name: Coyne, Alice E.
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: The degree to which patients and their therapists align over time on their perceptions of therapeutic processes and intermediary outcomes has generally been regarded as an important element of effective psychotherapy; however, few studies have examined empirically the influence of such dyadic convergences on ultimate treatment outcomes. This study examined (a) whether early treatment convergences in patient-therapist alliance and session progress ratings were associated with subsequent worry and distress reduction (and final posttreatment level) in psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and (b) whether treatment type and the initial (session 1) levels of perceived alliance and session progress moderated these associations. Data derived from a clinical trial in which patients with severe GAD were randomly assigned to receive either 15 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT; n = 43) or 4 sessions of motivational interviewing (MI) followed by 11 integrative CBT-MI sessions (n = 42). Patients and therapists rated the alliance and session progress after each session. Patients rated their worry and distress multiple times throughout treatment. Dyadic multilevel modeling revealed, as predicted, that alliance convergence over the first half of therapy was associated with greater subsequent worry (p = .03) and distress (p = .01) reduction. Additionally, the combination of low initial patient-rated alliance and early divergence was associated with the worst trajectory for the distress outcome (p = .04). Unexpectedly, session progress divergence had a near significant association with lower posttreatment worry (p = .05) and was significantly associated with more accelerated subsequent distress reduction (p = .03). Additionally, for patients who perceived their initial progress more positively, whether dyads converged or diverged in early session progress ratings affected the trajectories (though not the ultimate amount) of distress change (p = .02). These findings suggest that divergence of early patient-therapist alliance perspectives, especially when coupled with lower initial patient-rated alliance quality, may be an important marker for patient nonresponse and therapist responsiveness (e.g., use of alliance repair strategies). The findings on patient-therapist session progress convergence are less straightforward, though several possible implications are discussed.
Umass September 11 Intervention
Creators: name: Farzinmoghadam, Mohamad
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: September 11 terrorist attacks not only affect the United States but also the entire international community. Hundreds perished; most of them innocent citizens from over ninety different nations. It has changed the history of America, much like Japan’s strike against Pearl Harbor. The 9/11 attacks triggered the United States’ ongoing war against terrorism, starting with Afghanistan as the first target to overthrow Taliban, changing the course of world history.
The significance of the incident and severity of that traumatic loss makes a case for a memorial on the UMass campus in tribute to those victims. It is worth mentioning that a UMass community member (computer research specialist) lost his life in that event. The intention of this design is to pay a well-deserved tribute to the victims of the September 11 tragedy, together with providing information about the whole story. The statistics of the event have a visceral interpretation. All different aspects and numbers are incorporated into the design: number of the flights, number of the people killed, nationality of the victims, each have their specific place in the design pattern.
MOESM1 of Patient and health care system characteristics are associated with delayed treatment of tuberculosis cases in Taiwan
Creators: name: Chien-Chou Chen
name: Po-Huang Chiang
name: Yen-Hsu Chen
name: I-Chun Fan
name: Ta-Chien Chan
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Pharmacology
subject: Biotechnology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy
subject: 110309 Infectious Diseases
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 1: Table S1. Drug lists associated with chronic respiratory medicines
Consistent Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in the Large Magellanic Cloud on the Hubble Space Telescope Photometric System and a Re-determination of the Hubble Constant
Creators: name: Yuan, Wenlong
name: Riess, Adam G.
name: Macri, Lucas M.
name: Casertano, Stefano
name: Scolnic, Dan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present a calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) on the HST/ACS F814W system. We use archival HST observations to derive blending corrections and photometric transformations for two ground-based wide-area imaging surveys of the Magellanic Clouds. We show that these surveys are biased bright by up to ~0.1 mag in the optical due to blending, and that the bias is a function of local stellar density. We correct the LMC TRGB magnitudes from Jang & Lee (2017) and use the geometric distance from Pietrzynski et al. (2019) to obtain an absolute TRGB magnitude of M_F814W=-3.97+/-0.046 mag. Applying this calibration to the TRGB magnitudes from Freedman et al. (2019) in SN Ia hosts yields a value for the Hubble constant of H_0=72.4+/-2.0 km/s/Mpc for their TRGB+SNe Ia distance ladder. The difference in the TRGB calibration and the value of H_0 derived here and by Freedman et al. (2019) primarily results from their overestimate of the LMC extinction, caused by inconsistencies in their different sources of TRGB photometry for the Magellanic Clouds. Using the same source of photometry (OGLE) for both Clouds and applying the aforementioned corrections yields a value for the LMC I-band TRGB extinction that is lower by 0.06 mag, consistent with independent OGLE reddening maps used by us and by Jang & Lee (2017) to calibrate TRGB and determine H_0.
description: Accepted for publication in ApJ. This version incorporates all changes introduced during the refereeing process
The Radicalism Plateau: Working Class Transformation, Housing Foreclosure and the Hegemony of the American Dream
Creators: name: Foote, Aaron C
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: Much research has been done to explain how the late 2000s housing bubble burst, but little work has been done to see how working-class people responded and are responding to the issue of foreclosure in their communities. City Resistance, a grassroots community organization, transforms working class people from passive actors going through foreclosure to militant activists seeking to stay in their homes. My two-year ethnographic study chronicles the meetings, civil disobedience, and everyday lives of an organization of 300+ members in a medium sized, declining city, in the Northeast. It seeks to understand the multiple processes by which primarily Black and Latino members of the organization are transformed into radical subjects, but also the limits of that radicalism. A central contradiction is that the organizing model must address the immediate needs of members by servicing them and thus creating a belief in the legal system and the protections it offers, while simultaneously pushing them to think about housing as a human right, to move beyond their taken for granted conceptualizations of capitalism.
Nonparametric screening for additive quantile regression in ultra-high dimension
Creators: name: Li, Daoji
name: Kong, Yinfei
name: Zerom, Dawit
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Medicine
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Mathematical Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: In practical applications, one often does not know the ‘true’ structure of the underlying conditional quantile function, especially in the ultra-high dimensional setting. To deal with ultra-high dimensionality, quantile-adaptive marginal nonparametric screening methods have been recently developed. However, these approaches may miss important covariates that are marginally independent of the response, or may select unimportant covariates due to their high correlations with important covariates. To mitigate such shortcomings, we develop a conditional nonparametric quantile screening procedure (complemented by subsequent selection) for nonparametric additive quantile regression models. Under some mild conditions, we show that the proposed screening method can identify all relevant covariates in a small number of steps with probability approaching one. The subsequent narrowed best subset (via a modified Bayesian information criterion) also contains all the relevant covariates with overwhelming probability. The advantages of our proposed procedure are demonstrated through simulation studies and a real data example.
PARQ: A MEMORY-EFFICIENT APPROACH FOR QUERY-LEVEL PARALLELISM
Creators: name: Gao, Qianqian
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: In the era of big data, people not only enjoy what massive information brings, but also experience the problem of information overload. As the volume of both data and users increasing sharply, more and more studies focus on how to answer a query for interesting information from massive data. However, most memory-based query systems are designed and implemented to optimize the performance in processing a single query and do not support in-memory data sharing among query processing jobs. When they are extended to process multiple concurrent queries, they will suffer the problems of the inefficient use of memory and waste of time.
This thesis aims to design and implement a memory-efficient system, ParQ, which can be adopted by memory-based query systems to realize query-level parallelism. The main idea includes constructing a common memory block for maintaining sharable data. By sharing data, ParQ is able to process multiple queries concurrently while reducing memory usage and running time. We apply ParQ to several existing query systems. The experiment results show that ParQ improves the performance in both job completion time and memory usage when executing multiple concurrent query jobs.
Additional file 4 of Expression characteristics of pineal miRNAs at ovine different reproductive stages and the identification of miRNAs targeting the AANAT gene
Creators: name: Di, Ran
name: Liu, Qiu-Yue
name: Song, Shu-Hui
name: Tian, Dong-Mei
name: He, Jian-Ning
name: Ge, Ying
name: Wang, Xiang-Yu
name: Hu, Wen-Ping
name: Mwacharo, Joram-Mwashigadi
name: Pan, Zhang-Yuan
name: Wang, Jian-Dong
name: Ma, Qing
name: Cao, Gui-Ling
name: Jin, Hui-Hui
name: Liang, Xiao-Jun
name: Chu, Ming-Xing
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Additional file 4 The genes number and P value of pathways which target genes for differentially expressed miRNAs between anestrus and breeding season were enriched in.
Development of Filter-Based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Assays for Rapid Detection of Chemical and Biological Contaminants in Water
Creators: name: Gao, Siyue
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2016

description: Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely applied for rapid and sensitive detection of various chemical and biological targets. Here, we incorporated a syringe filter system into the SERS method to detect pesticides, protein toxins and bacteria in water. For the detection of chemical and protein targets, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were aggregated by sodium chloride (NaCl) to form nanoclusters that could be trapped in the pores of the filter membrane to from the SERS-active membrane. Then a coating of capture (e.g. aptamer) was integrated on the nanoparticle substrate if needed. Then samples were filtered through the membrane. After capturing the target, the membrane was taken out and air dried before measuring by a Raman instrument. The developed filter SERS method was able to detect fungicide ferbam as low as 2.5 ppb level and had a good quantitative capability, which could also be carried out on site using a portable Raman instrument. The aptamer integrated filter SERS was able to detect ricin b chain in water at 100 ppb level. The filter membrane was then applied to detect bacteria E.Coli with the integration of 4-mpba as a capture and indicator. With SERS mapping, we can detect E.Coli down to 101 CFU/ml and the viability of bacteria on the membrane could be confirmed by incubating the membrane on TS agar down to 102 CFU/ml. This study shows the filter based SERS methods improve the detection capability in water samples, with a great versatility for various types of assays.
A simple nonparametric least-squares-based causal inference for heterogeneous treatment effects
Creators: name: Zhang, Ying
name: Xu, Yuanfang
name: Tong, Lili
name: Bakoyannis, Giorgos
name: Huang, Bin
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2024
Subjects: Medicine
Biotechnology
Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
Mathematical Sciences not elsewhere classified
Science Policy

description: Estimating treatment effects is a common practice in making causal inferences. However, it is a challenging task for observational studies because the underlying models for outcome and treatment assignment are unknown. The concept of potential outcomes has been widely adopted in the literature on causal inferences. Building on potential outcomes, we propose a simple nonparametric least-squares spline-based causal inference method to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects in this manuscript. We use empirical process theory to study its asymptotic properties and conduct simulation studies to evaluate its operational characteristics. Based on the estimated heterogeneous treatment effects, we further estimate the average treatment effect and show the asymptotic normality of the estimator. Finally, we apply the proposed method to assess the biological anti-rheumatic treatment effect on children with newly onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis disease using electronic health records from a longitudinal study at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.