Title

Topic

  • ‘Speculative Histories, Just Futures: From Counterfactual Artifacts to Counterfactual Actions’

    “This article engages with history as a speculative space for the purpose of critically engaging with discourses around the politics of technology in [human-computer interaction]. Drawing on approaches within critical design and based on evidence from two different projects, we develop an approach, counterfactual actions, that moves beyond the creation of artifacts and towards more situated, embodied and performative engagements. … We argue that a focus on counterfactual actions supports a more relational approach to understanding the politics of socio-technical systems and infrastructures.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.

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  • ‘Identification of Novel Anti-Amoebic Pharmacophores From Kinase Inhibitor Chemotypes’

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    “Acanthamoeba species, Naegleria fowleri and Balamuthia mandrillaris are opportunistic pathogens that cause a range of brain, skin, eye and disseminated diseases in humans and animals. These pathogenic free-living amoebae (pFLA) are commonly misdiagnosed and have sub-optimal treatment regimens which contribute to the extremely high mortality rates (>90%) when they infect the central nervous system. To address the unmet medical need for effective therapeutics, we screened kinase inhibitor chemotypes against three pFLA using phenotypic drug assays involving CellTiter-Glo 2.0.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Frontiers in Microbiology.

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  • ‘Noncoding RNAs Improve the Predictive Power of Network Medicine’

    “Network medicine has been used to quantify disease mechanisms, comorbidities, and treatments, but most approaches have ignored interactions mediated by noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). This study systematically combines experimentally confirmed ncRNA and protein–protein interactions to construct a comprehensive network of all physical interactions in the human cell. The inclusion of ncRNA increases the number of genes and interactions in the interactome and enhances the ability to identify disease modules and predict comorbidity patterns between diseases. Ultimately, this study shows that including noncoding interactions improves the breadth and accuracy of network medicine.” Find the paper and full list of authors at PNAS.

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  • ‘Reading Vision in Adults With Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration Under Mesopic and Photopic Conditions’

    “Reading is involved in various daily activities that operate under a wide range of luminance levels. Rod- and cone-mediated mesopic visual function is known to be impaired even in early/intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It remains unclear whether and to what extent mesopic reading is impaired in early/intermediate AMD. Here, we assessed differences in reading vision between photopic and mesopic conditions in early/intermediate AMD and compared their performance to those in older adults with normal macular health.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Translational Vision Science & Technology.

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  • ‘Unveiling the Degradation of Pt/NbOx/C Catalysts in PEMFCs via In Situ X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy’

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    “Among the class of the catalyst that is composed of metal nanoparticles supported on metal oxides (MMO), the Pt/NbOx/C system has shown promising oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities as a cathode of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Herein, we have studied a series of Pt/NbOx/C catalysts prepared via physical vapor deposition and unraveled the nature of the metal and metal oxide interaction (MMOI) by characterizing this system under reactive conditions.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Journal of The Electrochemical Society.

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  • ‘Cross-sectional Analysis Reveals COVID-19 Pandemic Community Lockdown was Linked to Dysregulated Cortisol … in Children’

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    “The COVID-19 pandemic altered everyday life starting in March 2020. … Considerable research has investigated the physical health impact of COVID-19 infection, but far fewer studies have investigated the physiological impact of stressful pandemic-related changes to daily life, especially in children. The purpose of this study was to leverage an ongoing clinical trial to investigate physiological consequences associated with chronic stress of pandemic community lockdown on children. … Results suggest that the abrupt COVID-19 disruption to daily life, including … community lockdown, had physiological effects on typically developing children.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Frontiers in…

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  • This textbook explores how common words in health care work ‘in different, sometimes competing ways’

    Sari Altschuler, associate professor of English, has co-edited a new textbook, “Keywords for Health Humanities,” that unsettles the assumptions made by the modern health care industry around common terminology.

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  • ‘Data-Driven MRI Analysis Reveals Fitness-Related Functional Change in … Cognition Following an Exercise Intervention’

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    “Previous research has indicated that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is structurally and functionally neuroprotective in older adults. However, questions remain regarding the mechanistic role of CRF on cognitive and brain health. The purposes of this study were to investigate if higher pre-intervention CRF was associated with greater change in functional brain connectivity during an exercise intervention and to determine if the magnitude of change in connectivity was related to better post-intervention cognitive performance. … Results revealed a positive correlation between pre-intervention CRF and changes in functional connectivity in the precentral gyrus.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Psychophysiology.

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  • ‘Large Floods on the Lower Ohio River Inferred From Slackwater Deposits’

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    “Slackwater deposits representing past flood events provide a robust means to extend systematic gage records further back in time, place historic floods in a longer-term context, and reduce uncertainties in flood hazard analysis. The identification and application of slackwater deposits in riverine paleoflood hydrology has traditionally been limited to arid bedrock-controlled environments and periglacial environments. In this study, we utilize methods developed in humid alluvial settings and apply them to slackwater deposits, one of the first studies to do so.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment.

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  • ‘The Skills Your Employees Need to Work Effectively With AI’

    “Right now, the corporate world is in the throes of a generative AI hype cycle,” writes Nada Sanders, Distinguished Professor of supply chain management, with John D. Wood, attorney and author. “But how do [leaders] actually integrate AI with their workforce to achieve good business outcomes?” they ask. Sanders and Wood argue that the skills a workforce needs during this AI boom comes down to two categories: interpersonal skills and domain expertise.

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  • With NSF grant, Caracoglia will test life-size buildings against simulated tornados

    “Civil and environmental engineering professor Luca Caracoglia is part of a team of researchers across nine universities who have been given a four-year, $14 million grant by the NSF to design a facility that can test tornado effects on real-life scale building models.”

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  • ‘Evaluation of the US COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub for informing pandemic response under uncertainty’

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    “Our ability to forecast epidemics far into the future is constrained by the many complexities of disease systems. Realistic longer-term projections may, however, be possible under well-defined scenarios that specify the future state of critical epidemic drivers. Since December 2020, the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) has convened multiple modeling teams to make months ahead projections of SARS-CoV-2 burden, totaling nearly 1.8 million national and state-level projections. Here, we find SMH performance varied widely as a function of both scenario validity and model calibration.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Nature Communications.

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  • ‘Whole genome assembly and annotation of the endangered Caribbean coral Acropora cervicornis’

    “Coral species in the genus Acropora are key ecological components of coral reefs worldwide and represent the most diverse genus of scleractinian corals. While key species of Indo-Pacific Acropora have annotated genomes, no annotated genome has been published for either of the two species of Caribbean Acropora. Here we present the first fully annotated genome of the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis.” Find the paper and full list of authors at G3.

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  • ‘Shotgun Kinetic Target-Guided Synthesis Approach Enables the Discovery of Small-Molecule Inhibitors’

    “Pathogenic free-living amoebae (pFLA) can cause life-threatening central nervous system (CNS) infections and warrant the investigation of new chemical agents to combat the rise of infection from these pathogens. Naegleria fowleri glucokinase (NfGlck), a key metabolic enzyme involved in generating glucose-6-phosphate, was previously identified as a potential target due to its limited sequence similarity with human Glck (HsGlck). Herein, we used our previously demonstrated multifragment kinetic target-guided synthesis (KTGS) screening strategy to identify inhibitors against pFLA glucokinases.” Find the paper and full list of authors at ACS Infectious Diseases.

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  • ‘Biochemical Activity of 17 Cancer-Associated Variants of DNA Polymerase Kappa Predicted by Electrostatic Properties’

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    “DNA damage and repair have been widely studied in relation to cancer and therapeutics. Y-family DNA polymerases can bypass DNA lesions … including some chemotherapy agents. Overexpression of the Y-family polymerase human pol kappa can result in tumorigenesis and drug resistance in cancer. This report describes the use of computational tools to predict the effects of single nucleotide polymorphism variants on pol kappa activity. Partial Order Optimum Likelihood (POOL), a machine learning method, … was used to identify amino acid residues most likely involved in catalytic activity.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Chemical Research in Toxicology.

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  • ‘Chromatin Alternates Between A and B Compartments at Kilobase Scale for Subgenic Organization’

    “Nuclear compartments are prominent features of 3D chromatin organization, but sequencing depth limitations have impeded investigation at ultra fine-scale. CTCF loops are generally studied at a finer scale, but the impact of looping on proximal interactions remains enigmatic. Here, we critically examine nuclear compartments and CTCF loop-proximal interactions using a combination of in situ Hi-C at unparalleled depth, algorithm development and biophysical modeling.” Find the paper and full list of authors at Nature Communications.

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  • ‘Kinetics and mechanism of halide exchange in reactions of CpRu(PPh₃)₂Cl with alkyl halides’

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    “Halide exchange reactions between CpRu(PPh3)2Cl (1) and CBr4, CHBr3, CBr3CO2Et or CHBr2CO2Et yielding CpRu(PPh3)2Br (3) are facile and appear to proceed by a radical pair intermediate in a second order reaction. … Density functional theory calculations on potential intermediates suggests that a pathway leading to CpRu(PPh3)(Cl)(Br) is more likely than oxidative addition, which is preferred in reactions of 1 with bromoethane.” Find the paper and full list of authors at the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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  • Murthy receives patent for dendritic cell collection

    “Devices, systems, and methods can be used for the automated production of dendritic cells (DC) from dendritic cell progenitors, such as monocytes obtained from peripheral blood, and the automated generation of immunotherapeutic products from those dendritic cells, all within a closed system. The invention makes it possible to obtain sufficient quantities of a subject’s own DC for use in preparing and characterizing vaccines, for activating and characterizing the activation state of the subject’s immune response, and to aid in preventing and/or treating cancer or infectious disease.”

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  • ‘Multiconfigurational Photodynamics Simulations Reveal the Mechanism of Photodecarbonylations of Cyclopropenones’

    “Gas-evolving photochemical reactions use light and mild conditions to access strained organic compounds irreversibly. Cyclopropenones are a class of light-responsive molecules used in bioorthogonal photoclick reactions; their excited-state decarbonylation reaction mechanisms are misunderstood due to their ultrafast (<100 femtosecond) lifetimes. We have combined multiconfigurational quantum mechanical (QM) calculations and non-adiabatic molecular dynamics (NAMD) simulations to uncover the excited-state mechanism of cyclopropenone and a photoprotected cyclooctyne-(COT)-precursor in gaseous and explicit aqueous environments.” Find the paper and full list of authors at the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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  • In every designed object, there is ‘a human being at the center’ — Lee Moreau’s new podcast explores just who design is for

    Professor of the practice of design Lee Moreau’s new podcast, “Design As,” invites leaders in the field of design to discuss contemporary issues within their discipline and interrogate just who design belongs to or serves.

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  • Developing cutting-edge testing technology for 5G Open RAN

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    “Electrical and computer engineering principal research scientist Pedram Johari is leading a $2,000,000 project awarded by the Wireless Innovation Fund to develop a digital framework for testing 5G Open RAN systems called ‘DigiRAN: High-Fidelity Digital Twins for Interoperability, Security and Performance Testing of Open RAN Systems.’ DigiRAN is a digital framework that enables diverse, low-cost and automated testing of three core components for 5G Open RAN: interoperability, performance and security.”

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  • Ostadabbas receives NSF grant to integrate AR technologies into stroke rehabilitation

    “Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Sarah Ostadabbas, in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and Myomo, Inc., has secured a $550,000 NSF grant for their project titled ‘PFI-RP: Augmented Reality and Electroencephalography for Detecting, Assessing and Rehabilitating Visual Unilateral Neglect in Stroke Patients.’ This project aims to create a comprehensive tool for detecting, assessing and rehabilitating neglect in stroke patients. It will use augmented reality (AR) and electroencephalography (EEG) to automatically detect neglect and stimulate the affected side of the body and environment.”

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  • Improving the efficiency of medical device communication

    “Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia was awarded a patent for ‘Ultrasonic multiplexing network for implantable medical devices.'”

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  • Chowdhury and Jornet made IEEE Fellows

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    “Electrical and computer engineering professors Kaushik Chowdhury and Josep Jornet were elevated to IEEE Fellows. Chowdhury was elevated for contributions to the development of cognitive radio networks and applied machine learning for wireless systems. Jornet was recognized for contributions in terahertz communication and nanonetworking.”

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  • ‘Monolingual Disobedience, Multilingual Guilt?: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Heritage Language Maintenance During COVID-19 Lockdowns’

    “In this study I indicate that lengthened family interaction time during pandemic lockdowns can afford children significantly more exposure and opportunities to enhance their heritage language, but that this does not diminish the constant dilemma between striving to balance English acquisition and heritage language maintenance. Using autoethnography, and as a first-generation immigrant mother of a preschool-age Chinese American child, I will demonstrate how our family language policy and languaging practices evolved during the COVID19 lockdowns.”

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  • Connecting to medical devices through ultrasonic network

    “Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia was awarded a patent for ‘Internet-linked ultrasonic network for medical devices.'”

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  • With new industrial ecology textbook, Matthew Eckelman suggests we treat industry ‘more like nature’

    Associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Matthew Eckelman has co-authored “Industrial Ecology and Sustainability,” a new edition of a seminal textbook in the field of industrial ecology, which asks, “How can we make the industrial system act more like nature?”

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  • Long-term retirement care is facing imminent revolution: ‘The marketplace will demand it’

    Timothy Hoff, professor of management, healthcare systems and public policy, writes, “Long-term care in the United States is on the verge of profound change. The marketplace will demand it. More people than ever want to age in place.” With “70 million baby boomers … moving past or toward the age of 65 years [and] another 65 million Gen Xers … following them,” artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize the field of retirement-age care.

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  • ‘Engaged and Reflexive Sociology for Environmental Health’

    “The article examines my environmental health work for nearly four decades with many environmental activists and organizations, as well as scientists and government officials. I discuss how I have merged research and advocacy, while mentoring many students and colleagues on how to do that. I discuss my efforts to conduct transdisciplinary work that crosses social sciences, environmental health science, environmental justice, social movement studies and science and technology studies, while centering that work on community-based participatory research.”

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  • Protecting wireless systems from adversarial attacks

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    “Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia, assistant professor Francesco Restuccia and assistant research professor Salvatore D’oro were awarded a patent for ‘Neural network for adversarial deep learning in wireless systems.'”

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