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Mid-Atlantic Topology Conference held at Northeastern
The 2024 Mid-Atlantic Topology Conference was held at Northeastern University in late March, 2024. The conference was sponsored by professors Ben Knudsen, Iva Halacheva and Jose Perea in the department of mathematics.
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NIH funding for nanomedicine co-ops fighting cancer
“CaNCURE: Cancer Nanomedicine Co-ops for Undergraduate Research Experiences Program seeks to provide training and education in research at the interface of nanotechnology, cancer biology and medicine to attract, retain and encourage young scientists and engineers, particularly those from underrepresented minorities, to pursue careers in cancer research. The program will achieve this central aim by creating meaningful and rigorous research experiences mentored by outstanding academic and clinical researchers and supplemented with high-impact learning and professional development opportunities. The program combines Northeastern University’s model of co-op education with the outstanding cancer nanomedicine research infrastructure at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.”
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Hillman receives funding to study ‘Persistence of Neurocognitive Benefits of Exercise’
“In this 5-year follow-up to the IGNITE exercise intervention study we will examine whether exercise has a delayed or protracted benefit to neurocognitive outcomes including Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. We will also examine whether we can predict long-term exercise engagement by utilizing the rich biological and psychological data from IGNITE.”
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NSF funding secured for ‘Mobility Data for Communities: Uncovering Segregation, Climate Resilience and Economic Development from Cell-Phone Records’
“In this project, we plan to build a public mobility data platform for the Boston area that will help neighborhoods and communities use cellphone-generated data to address issues of social equity, racial and socioeconomic segregation, economic development and climate resilience.”
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‘FANCJ Promotes PARP1 Activity during DNA replication that Is Essential in BRCA1 Deficient Cells’
“The effectiveness of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) in creating single-stranded DNA gaps and inducing sensitivity requires the FANCJ DNA helicase. Yet, how FANCJ relates to PARP1 inhibition or trapping, which contribute to PARPi toxicity, remains unclear. Here, we find PARPi effectiveness hinges on S-phase PARP1 activity, which is reduced in FANCJ deficient cells as G-quadruplexes sequester PARP1 and MSH2.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Nature Communications.
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‘Ensemble2: Scenarios Ensembling for Communication and Performance Analysis’
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, scenario modeling played a crucial role in shaping the decision-making process of public health policies. Unlike forecasts, scenario projections rely on specific assumptions about the future that consider different plausible states-of-the-world that may or may not be realized. … As a consequence, long-term scenario projections require different evaluation criteria than the ones used for traditional short-term epidemic forecasts. Here, we propose a novel ensemble procedure for assessing pandemic scenario projections using the results of the Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) for COVID-19 in the United States (US).” Find the paper and full list of authors in Epidemics.
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‘AI Fairness in Action: A Human-Computer Perspective on AI Fairness in Organizations and Society’
“As fairness is acutely subjective in nature, and it is those subjective experiences that determine behavioral outcomes, it follows that the use of AI systems in decision-making raises important concerns about the fairness of processes, treatment and outcomes. Therefore, we need to situate the psychology of how humans perceive fairness into the realm of algorithmic decision-making. … In this special issue, we aim to fill these voids [in the literature] by presenting theoretical and empirical work that contribute to our understanding of what AI fairness encapsulates.” Find the paper and full list of authors at the International Journal of Human–Computer…
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Weng receives Grantham funding to engineer carbon sequestering plant roots
“This project aims to develop engineered plants that produce chemically inert sporopollenin in non-anther tissues for long-term carbon storage. By reconstituting sporopollenin biosynthesis and secretion in roots, inert polymers can be injected into soil. Progress includes identifying sporopollenin biosynthetic genes, developing analytical methods and exploring yeast expression systems. Future work will assess sporopollenin durability in soil and investigate sporopollenin co-polymers in plants. This scalable, self-repairable approach offers a biological solution for atmospheric carbon sequestration.”
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‘Accounting for Hydroclimatic Properties in Flood Frequency Analysis Procedures’
“Flood hazard is typically evaluated by computing extreme flood probabilities from a flood frequency distribution following nationally defined procedures. … These procedures, also known as flood frequency analysis, typically recommend only one probability distribution family for all watersheds within a country or region. However, large uncertainties associated with extreme flood probability estimates (>50-year flood or Q50) can be further biased when fit to an inappropriate distribution model. … Here, we demonstrate that hydroclimatic parameters can aid in the selection of a parametric flood frequency distribution.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
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‘Physical Activity-Related Individual Differences in Functional Human Connectome Are Linked to Fluid Intelligence in Older Adults’
“The study examined resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MV-PA), sedentary time (ST), TV viewing, computer use and their relationship to cognitive performance in older adults. We used pre-intervention data from 119 participants from the Fit & Active Seniors trial. … Our findings suggest that greater functional integration within networks implementing top-down control and within those supporting visuospatial abilities, paired with segregation between networks critical and those not critical to top-down control, may help promote cognitive reserve in more physically active seniors.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Neurobiology of Aging.
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‘Spin–Orbit Exciton–Induced Phonon Chirality in a Quantum Magnet’
“Phonons are known as an important energy carrier and their interaction with electrons is critical for understanding exotic properties in correlated materials. … Chiral phonons arising from circular ionic motions alone would only exhibit a small magnetic moment. In contrast, chiral phonons reported recently in several classes of materials including the pseudogap phase of cuprates and topological semimetals exhibit surprisingly large moments. Here, we report studies of chiral phonons in CoTiO3, a quantum magnet that hosts interesting bosonic excitations such as topological magnons and spin–orbit excitons.” Find the paper and full list of authors at PNAS.
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Wales will target ‘SHP-1 through a newfound metabolite-regulated cysteine activation site’
“This new project is focused on chemical manipulation and characterization of SHP-1 based on recent insights, gained in large part from the development of mass spectrometry approaches to map small molecule covalent interactions proteome-wide done in the Chouchani laboratory. My research group will apply hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) to investigate conformational changes of SHP-1 upon binding to itaconate and itaconate-mimetics to ascertain if SHP-1 activation leads to conformational rearrangement and then determine where those rearrangements take place within SHP-1. These HDX MS studies will provide solution-based measurements that will complement the X-ray crystallography studies of the same system.”
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‘Effect of Emotion Naming on Emotion Regulation in Younger and Older Adults’
“Prior research has shown that naming one’s emotions before regulation has a detrimental effect on regulation success (Nook et al., 2020). … The aim of the current replication-extension study was to evaluate whether this effect would replicate in an older adult sample. Due to age-related changes in emotion regulation knowledge and behaviors, we hypothesized that age would moderate this effect. … However, contrary to our hypothesis, this effect was larger in older adults (d=.82) than younger adults (d=.41). These findings suggest that affect crystallization may be stronger or faster in older adulthood.” Find the paper and list of authors at Innovation…
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‘Associations Between Cognitive Resources and Emotion Regulation Tactics in an Adult Lifespan Sample’
“The current study investigated how trait-level cognitive capacity relates to emotion regulation tactic preferences in everyday life in adulthood and old age. 51 younger adults (ages 18-39), 53 middle-aged adults (ages 40-59), and 55 older adults (ages 60+) completed measures of working memory and verbal fluency, as well as 21 days of experience sampling. On each survey, participants indicated if they had regulated since the last survey and if so, what emotion regulation strategies they used and how they implemented that strategy through specific emotion regulation tactics.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Innovation in Aging.
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‘Modeling the Role of Immune Cell Conversion in the Tumor-Immune Microenvironment’
“Tumors develop in a complex physical, biochemical, and cellular milieu, referred to as the tumor microenvironment. Of special interest is the set of immune cells that reciprocally interact with the tumor, the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME). … While tumor cells are known to induce immune cells to switch from anti-tumor to pro-tumor phenotypes, this type of ecological interaction has been largely overlooked. To address this gap in cancer modeling, we develop a minimal, ecological model of the TIME with immune cell conversion, to highlight this important interaction and explore its consequences.” Find the paper and authors list at Bulletin of Mathematical…
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‘Switching the Spin Cycloid in BiFeO3 With an Electric Field’
“Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a multiferroic material that exhibits both ferroelectricity and canted antiferromagnetism at room temperature, making it a unique candidate in the development of electric-field controllable magnetic devices. The magnetic moments in BiFeO3 are arranged into a spin cycloid, resulting in unique magnetic properties which are tied to the ferroelectric order. Previous understanding of this coupling has relied on average, mesoscale measurements. Using nitrogen vacancy-based diamond magnetometry, we observe the magnetic spin cycloid structure of BiFeO3 in real space.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Nature Communications.
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Zheng receives Leadership for Inclusion and Diversity Award
Yi Zheng, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, received the 2024 Leadership for Inclusion and Diversity Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Pacific Islanders Commission. Zheng presented a speech at the 16th Annual Unity Dinner before Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg and State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. The award recognized Zheng “as an exceptional leader who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to fostering inclusivity and diversity.”
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Weng receives Food Allergy Science Initiative funding to understand role of phytochemicals in allergies
“This project investigates the role of phytochemicals in food allergies, focusing on identifying plant secondary metabolites that influence allergic reactions and developing potential therapeutics for food allergies. Jing-Ke Weng’s lab aims to advance understanding of food allergy causes and mechanisms through interdisciplinary research on plant chemistry and its interaction with the human immune system, with the ultimate goal of creating new treatments for food allergies.”
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Weng receives USDA funding to explore cyclic peptide biosynthesis
“Plants offer an enormous chemodiversity that is essential for discovering new medicines, with 25% of all FDA-approved drugs coming from plants. However, the production of plant-derived natural products faces significant challenges. Our research [explores] the biosynthesis and bioengineering of lyciumins and moroidins, two classes of branched cyclic peptides with potential pharmaceutical applications. Lyciumins, inhibitors of the human angiotensin-converting enzyme, come from the Goji berry, while moroidins, derived from the Australian stinging tree, exhibit anti-mitotic activities suitable for cancer therapy. … We propose to advance our understanding of RiPP diversity and biosynthesis, supporting new strategies for their engineering and application in…
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Joshi, Nguyen receive patent for ‘therapeutic protein’-secreting bacteria
Associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology Neel S. Joshi, with student Peter Nguyen, received a patent for “Engineered bacteria that secrete therapeutic polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the bacteria, methods for producing recombinant polypeptides and methods for using the bacteria for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.”
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Patent for network slicing policies
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant research professor Salvatore D’oro, assistant professor Francesco Restuccia and professor Tommaso Melodia were awarded a patent for ‘Methods for the Enforcement of Network Slicing Policies in Virtualized Cellular Networks.'”
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‘A Gradient of Unisons: The Emergent Superunit in Collective Action’
“As design practice shifts from designing material goods to shaping and facilitating social situations, there is a compelling need to develop a richer understanding of specific social relations as facilitated by design. This article explores bodied unisons—enkinaesthetic entrainments of self + other. We present these unison acts as identifiable patterns of behavior that are observable when people coordinate, patterns that foster a move from individual to superunit.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Design Issues.
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‘Quasi-Fermi Liquid Behavior in a One-Dimensional System of Interacting Spinless Fermions’
“We present numerical evidence for a paradigm in one-dimensional interacting fermion systems, whose phenomenology has traits of both Luttinger liquids and Fermi liquids. This state, dubbed a quasi-Fermi liquid, possesses a discontinuity in its fermion occupation number at the Fermi momentum. The excitation spectrum presents particlelike quasiparticles and absence of holelike quasiparticles, giving rise instead to edge singularities.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Physical Review B.
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‘Rigor With Machine Learning From Field Theory to the Poincaré Conjecture’
“Despite their successes, machine learning techniques are often stochastic, error-prone and blackbox. How could they then be used in fields such as theoretical physics and pure mathematics for which error-free results and deep understanding are a must? In this Perspective, we discuss techniques for obtaining zero-error results with machine learning, with a focus on theoretical physics and pure mathematics. Non-rigorous methods can enable rigorous results via conjecture generation or verification by reinforcement learning. We survey applications of these techniques-for-rigor ranging from string theory to the smooth 4D Poincaré conjecture in low-dimensional topology.” Find the authors list in Nature Reviews: Physics.