Effects of Private Insurance on Forest Landowners' Incentives to Sequester and Trade Carbon under Uncertainty: Impact of Hurricanes

We evaluate incentives of forest landowners for sequestering and trading carbon, given the risk of carbon loss from hurricanes, and an opportunity to insure their losses. Results of simulation model reveal that the effect of hurricane risk depends on the variability of returns from carbon and timber and landowners' ability to mitigate risk by diversifying forest holdings across regions or transferring risk by purchasing insurance.Carbon Sequestration, Emissions Trading, Natural Disaster, Risk, Insurance, Risk and Uncertainty, Q54, Q58,

Do Libraries Still Need Book Vendors and Subscription Agents?

Digital content blurs the lines of traditional library acquisition workflows and organization. For example: link resolvers and the loading of order confirmation record files may be handled by systems staff in one organization and by technical services staff in another. Lines are being crossed between acquisitions and interlibrary loan functions, notably with electronic versions of theses and dissertations. Regardless of this blurring of lines, library staff use vendors still in acquiring content for the library collection. The reasons for using vendors have stood for decades, but are changes in the information industry having an impact? In the current environment, what interactions with vendors are most useful to a library

Numerical solver for vertical air motion estimation

We present preliminary research on a method to estimate Vertical Air Motion (VAM) at a particular height by comparing the measured rain-rate (RR) by a vertically-pointing S-band Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radar with that of a ground-based disdrometer. The method is based on a constrained parametric solver, assuming high correlation between 5-min averaged rain rates measured by the radar and disdrometer. The method is tested over disdrometer and radar observations during the Verification of the ORigins Tornado EXperiment in South East US (VORTEX-SE) project. Finally, the results are partially validated by means of fitting a gamma distribution to the VAM-corrected DSD profiles and studying its parameters.This research is part of the projects PGC2018-094132-B-I00 and MDM2016-0600 (“CommSensLab” Excellence Unit) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Investigación (MCIN)/ Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)/10.13039/501100011033/ FEDER “Una manera de hacer Europa”. The work of A. Salcedo-Bosch was supported under grant 2020 FISDU 00455 funded by Generalitat de Catalunya—AGAUR. The European Commission collaborated under projects H2020 ACTRIS-IMP (GA-871115) and H2020 ATMOACCESS (GA-101008004).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPA) as a membrane-permeable chelator for interception of biological mobile zinc

We report the characterization of tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPA) as a membrane-permeable zinc chelator for intercepting biological mobile zinc. Compared to N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine (TPEN), TPA chelates zinc with faster kinetics in cuvettes, live cells, and brain slices. TPA also is generally less toxic than TPEN in cell culture. Mechanistic analysis indicates that these improvements arise from both the electronic and steric properties of TPA including weaker metal-binding affinity, lower pK[subscript a], and smaller size. These results demonstrate that TPA chelation is a valuable addition to the methodologies available for investigating mobile zinc in biology.National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Grant GM065519)FRAXA Research Foundation (Fellowship

Analysis of Indoor Rowing Motion using Wearable Inertial Sensors

In this exploratory work the motion of rowers is analyzed while rowing on a rowing machine. This is performed using inertial sensors that measure the orientation at several positions on the body. Using these measurements, this work provides a preliminary analysis of the differences between experienced and novice rowers, or between a good and a bad technique. The analysis shows that the measured postural angles show no clear trend that would set apart experienced and novice rowers or a bad and a good technique. However, there are clear differences in absolute postural angle’s consistency and timing consistency of strokes between novice and experienced rowers. We also applied a machine learning technique to the data to find the similarities between different rowers and an experienced reference rower. The results can be used to compare the quality of the rowing technique with respect to a reference. In this paper, we present our initial results as well as the challenges that need to be further explored

Automated Gaze-Based Mind Wandering Detection during Computerized Learning in Classrooms

We investigate the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) eye-trackers to automatically detect mind wandering—a phenomenon involving a shift in attention from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts—during computerized learning. Study 1 (N = 135 high-school students) tested the feasibility of COTS eye tracking while students learn biology with an intelligent tutoring system called GuruTutor in their classroom. We could successfully track eye gaze in 75% (both eyes tracked) and 95% (one eye tracked) of the cases for 85% of the sessions where gaze was successfully recorded. In Study 2, we used this data to build automated student-independent detectors of mind wandering, obtaining accuracies (mind wandering F1 = 0.59) substantially better than chance (F1 = 0.24). Study 3 investigated context-generalizability of mind wandering detectors, finding that models trained on data collected in a controlled laboratory more successfully generalized to the classroom than the reverse. Study 4 investigated gaze- and video- based mind wandering detection, finding that gaze-based detection was superior and multimodal detection yielded an improvement in limited circumstances. We tested live mind wandering detection on a new sample of 39 students in Study 5 and found that detection accuracy (mind wandering F1 = 0.40) was considerably above chance (F1 = 0.24), albeit lower than offline detection accuracy from Study 1 (F1 = 0.59), a finding attributable to handling of missing data. We discuss our next steps towards developing gaze-based attention-aware learning technologies to increase engagement and learning by combating mind wandering in classroom contexts

Single-Agent Mosunetuzumab Shows Durable Complete Responses in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Lymphomas: Phase I Dose-Escalation Study

Mosunetuzumab; B-cell lymphomasMosunetuzumab; Limfomes de cèl·lules bMosunetuzumab; Linfomas de células bPURPOSE Mosunetuzumab is a bispecific antibody targeting CD20 and CD3 that redirects T cells to engage and eliminate malignant B cells and is being developed for relapsed or refractory (R/R) B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHLs). METHODS This first-in-human trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02500407) evaluated the safety and tolerability and efficacy of mosunetuzumab in patients with R/R B-NHL and established the recommended phase II dose. Data from dose escalation are presented. Single-agent mosunetuzumab was administered intravenously in 3-week cycles, at full dose in cycle 1 day 1 (group A) or with ascending (step-up) doses during cycle 1 on days 1, 8, and 15 (group B), for eight or 17 cycles on the basis of tumor response. RESULTS Two hundred thirty patients were enrolled. Doses up to 2.8 mg and 60 mg were assessed in groups A and B, respectively; maximum tolerated dose was not exceeded. In group B (n = 197), common adverse events (≥ 20% of patients) were neutropenia (28.4%), cytokine release syndrome (27.4%), hypophosphatemia (23.4%), fatigue (22.8%), and diarrhea (21.8%). Cytokine release syndrome was mostly low-grade (grade ≥ 3: 1.0%) and mainly confined to cycle 1. Across the doses investigated (group B), best overall response rates were 34.9% and 66.2% in patients with aggressive and indolent B-NHL, respectively, and complete response rates were 19.4% and 48.5%. Among patients with a complete response, the median duration of response was 22.8 months (95% CI, 7.6 to not estimable) and 20.4 (95% CI, 16 to not estimable) in patients with aggressive and indolent B-NHL, respectively. CONCLUSION Mosunetuzumab, administered with step-up dosing, has a manageable safety profile and induces durable complete responses in R/R B-NHL. The expansion stage of the study is ongoing at the dose level of 1/2/60/60/30 mg selected for further study

Effect of semaglutide on major adverse cardiovascular events by baseline kidney parameters in participants with type 2 diabetes and at high risk of cardiovascular disease:SUSTAIN 6 and PIONEER 6 post hoc pooled analysis

Background: Semaglutide is a glucose-lowering treatment for type 2 diabetes (T2D) with demonstrated cardiovascular benefits; semaglutide may also have kidney-protective effects. This post hoc analysis investigated the association between major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and baseline kidney parameters and whether the effect of semaglutide on MACE risk was impacted by baseline kidney parameters in people with T2D at high cardiovascular risk.Methods: Participants from the SUSTAIN 6 and PIONEER 6 trials, receiving semaglutide or placebo, were categorised according to baseline kidney function (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] &lt; 45 and ≥ 45–&lt;60 versus ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or damage (urine albumin:creatinine ratio [UACR] ≥ 30–≤300 and &gt; 300 versus &lt; 30 mg/g). Relative risk of first MACE by baseline kidney parameters was evaluated using a Cox proportional hazards model. The same model, adjusted with inverse probability weighting, and a quadratic spline regression were applied to evaluate the effect of semaglutide on risk and event rate of first MACE across subgroups. The semaglutide effects on glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), body weight (BW) and serious adverse events (SAEs) across subgroups were also evaluated.Results: Independently of treatment, participants with reduced kidney function (eGFR ≥ 45–&lt;60 and &lt; 45 mL/min/1.73 m2: hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]; 1.36 [1.04;1.76] and 1.52 [1.15;1.99]) and increased albuminuria (UACR ≥ 30–≤300 and &gt; 300 mg/g: 1.53 [1.14;2.04] and 2.52 [1.84;3.42]) had an increased MACE risk versus those without. Semaglutide consistently reduced MACE risk versus placebo across all eGFR and UACR subgroups (interaction p value [pINT] &gt; 0.05). Semaglutide reduced HbA1c regardless of baseline eGFR and UACR (pINT&gt;0.05); reductions in BW were affected by baseline eGFR (pINT&lt;0.001) but not UACR (pINT&gt;0.05). More participants in the lower eGFR or higher UACR subgroups experienced SAEs versus participants in reference groups; the number of SAEs was similar between semaglutide and placebo arms in each subgroup.Conclusions: MACE risk was greater for participants with kidney impairment or damage than for those without. Semaglutide consistently reduced MACE risk across eGFR and UACR subgroups, indicating that semaglutide provides cardiovascular benefits in people with T2D and at high cardiovascular risk across a broad spectrum of kidney function and damage.Trial registrations: NCT01720446; NCT02692716.</p