Isolation of Microbes Essential to Anaerobic Digestion

This presentation details the ongoing work for my LUROP fellowship: isolation and characterization of microbes essential to anaerobic digestion. While our work was stalled due to COVID-19, we detailed the progress we have made so far this semester as well as our future directions in this poster

Collide and Conquer: Constraints on Simplified Dark Matter Models using Mono-X Collider Searches

The use of simplified models as a tool for interpreting dark matter collider searches has become increasingly prevalent, and while early Run II results are beginning to appear, we look to see what further information can be extracted from the Run I dataset. We consider three `standard' simplified models that couple quarks to fermionic singlet dark matter: an $s$-channel vector mediator with vector or axial-vector couplings, and a $t$-channel scalar mediator. Upper limits on the couplings are calculated and compared across three alternate channels, namely mono-jet, mono-$Z$ (leptonic) and mono-$W/Z$ (hadronic). The strongest limits are observed in the mono-jet channel, however the computational simplicity and absence of significant $t$-channel model width effects in the mono-boson channels make these a straightforward and competitive alternative. We also include a comparison with relic density and direct detection constraints.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures; v2: minor changes, conclusion unchanged, matches published versio

Individual differences in envy experienced through perspective-taking involves functional connectivity of the superior frontal gyrus

Envy is the painful or resentful awareness of another’s advantage combined with a desire to possess that same advantage. Recent neuroscientific research has begun to shed light on the brain regions that process the experience of envy, including regions of the prefrontal cortex involved in emotional processing and social cognition. It is still unclear, however, which regions of the brain are functionally connected during the experience of envy. We recorded functional neuroimaging data while inducing simulated envy in participants, experienced through a perspective-taking hypothetical scenario task. In this task, participants took the perspective of a protagonist portrayed in a written description and compared themselves to either i) a self-similar/superior individual, ii) a self-dissimilar/superior individual, or iii) a self-dissimilar/average individual. During each comparison, participants also reported how much envy they experienced while taking the protagonists perspective. We demonstrate an inverse relationship in the connectivity of the left superior frontal gyrus to both the right supramarginal gyrus and the precuneus with respect to self-reported envy ratings across participants. In other words, we show that the greater the functional connectivity that the left superior frontal gyrus shares with the right supramarginal gyrus and precuneus, the less reported envy a participant experiences. Overall, our results are in line with previous research implicating the superior frontal gyrus in the reappraisal of negative emotions and extend these findings by showing this region is also involved in modulating the simulated experience of the social comparative, negative emotion of envy

ARK-Virus: an ARK platform extension for mindful risk governance of personal protective equipment use in healthcare

In this demonstration we present the Access Risk Knowledge (ARK) Platform - a socio-technical risk governance system. Through the ARK Virus Project, the ARK Platform has been extended for risk management of personal protective equipment (PPE) in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. ARK demonstrates the benefits of a Semantic Web approach for supporting both the integration and classification of qualitative and quantitative PPE risk data, across multiple healthcare organisations, in order to generate a unique unified evidence base of risk. This evidence base could be used to inform decision making processes regarding PPE use

The ARK platform: enabling risk management through semantic web technologies

This paper describes the Access Risk Knowledge (ARK) platform and ontologies for socio-technical risk analysis using the Cube methodology. Linked Data is used in ARK to integrate qualitative clinical risk management data with quantitative operational data and analytics. This required the development of a novel clinical safety management taxonomy to annotate qualitative risk data and make it more amenable to automated analysis. The platform is complemented by other two ontologies that support structured data capture for the Cube sociotechnical analysis methodology developed by organisational psychologists at Trinity College Dublin. The ARK platform development and trials have shown the benefits of a Semantic Web approach to flexibly support data integration, making qualitative data machine readable and building dynamic, high-usability web applications applied to clinical risk management. The main results so far are a self-annotated, standards-based taxonomy for risk and safety management expressed in the W3C’s standard Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS) and a Cube data capture, curation and analysis platform for clinical risk management domain experts. The paper describes the ontologies and their development process, our initial clinical safety management use case and lessons learned from the application of ARK to real-world use cases. This work has shown the potential for using Linked Data to integrate operational and safety data into a unified information space supporting more continuous, adaptive and predictive clinical risk management

A Hedged Monte Carlo Approach to Real Option Pricing

In this work we are concerned with valuing optionalities associated to invest or to delay investment in a project when the available information provided to the manager comes from simulated data of cash flows under historical (or subjective) measure in a possibly incomplete market. Our approach is suitable also to incorporating subjective views from management or market experts and to stochastic investment costs. It is based on the Hedged Monte Carlo strategy proposed by Potters et al (2001) where options are priced simultaneously with the determination of the corresponding hedging. The approach is particularly well-suited to the evaluation of commodity related projects whereby the availability of pricing formulae is very rare, the scenario simulations are usually available only in the historical measure, and the cash flows can be highly nonlinear functions of the prices.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figure

EGFL7 loss correlates with increased VEGF-D expression, upregulating hippocampal adult neurogenesis and improving spatial learning and memory

Correction: Volume: 80 Issue: 8 DOI: 10.1007/s00018-023-04835-3 Article Number: 201 Published: AUG 2023Neural stem cells reside in the subgranular zone, a specialized neurogenic niche of the hippocampus. Throughout adulthood, these cells give rise to neurons in the dentate gyrus, playing an important role in learning and memory. Given that these core cognitive processes are disrupted in numerous disease states, understanding the underlying mechanisms of neural stem cell proliferation in the subgranular zone is of direct practical interest. Here, we report that mature neurons, neural stem cells and neural precursor cells each secrete the neurovascular protein epidermal growth factor-like protein 7 (EGFL7) to shape this hippocampal niche. We further demonstrate that EGFL7 knock-out in a Nestin-CreERT2-based mouse model produces a pronounced upregulation of neurogenesis within the subgranular zone. RNA sequencing identified that the increased expression of the cytokine VEGF-D correlates significantly with the ablation of EGFL7. We substantiate this finding with intraventricular infusion of VEGF-D upregulating neurogenesis in vivo and further show that VEGF-D knock-out produces a downregulation of neurogenesis. Finally, behavioral studies in EGFL7 knock-out mice demonstrate greater maintenance of spatial memory and improved memory consolidation in the hippocampus by modulation of pattern separation. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that both EGFL7 and VEGF-D affect neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus, with the ablation of EGFL7 upregulating neurogenesis, increasing spatial learning and memory, and correlating with increased VEGF-D expression.Peer reviewe