243 research outputs found
One-to-one interactions are still the best way for public servants in small towns to understand what citizens want
For public servants working in government, understanding citizens’ needs is incredibly important, and those working in small towns are no exception. In new research, Jason D. Rivera looks at the techniques policymakers in Grand Island, New York, use to understand the needs of their citizens. He finds that while public meetings, townhalls and social media can give a sense of what the public wants, they can also give a false impression when vocal groups push their own sentiments. In contrast, one-to-one meetings between public servants and citizens can often be the most effective way of determining what members of the public want
Preparing Your Family for Emergencies: An Informational Tool for Parents Living in the State of New York
This pamphlet is designed to help you and your family be prepared for emergency situations
Constructing Identities of Deservedness: Public Housing and Post-WWII Economic Planning Efforts
Managed Racial Capitalism: Understanding the Bureaucratic State’s Racialized Practices in Detroit, Michigan
Public administration navigates an important place in governing in that it is multidisciplinary and focused on practice, thus all theories need to be prepared to face critique from the people. At this watershed moment of social justice, political reckoning, and revolutionary imagination, it is key that public administration contends with the racist logics driving the field and the practice. In this article, we examine the ways that the current governing system fails to account for the racialized political economy, thus reproducing the inequality inherent in that system. The paper poses two questions: 1) How does the public administration of local governments reproduce inequality? And 2) How can we rethink public administration through a system of governing that intentionally engages with and rectifies racialized practices? We argue that late-stage capitalism, manifested as neoliberalism, is always racialized. We propose a manageable possibility of community-focused engagement and deliberation
Population pulsation resonances of excitons in monolayer MoSe2 with sub 1 {\mu}eV linewidth
Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, a new class of atomically thin
semiconductors, possess optically coupled 2D valley excitons. The nature of
exciton relaxation in these systems is currently poorly understood. Here, we
investigate exciton relaxation in monolayer MoSe2 using polarization-resolved
coherent nonlinear optical spectroscopy with high spectral resolution. We
report strikingly narrow population pulsation resonances with two different
characteristic linewidths of 1 {\mu}eV and <0.2 {\mu}eV at low-temperature.
These linewidths are more than three orders of magnitude narrower than the
photoluminescence and absorption linewidth, and indicate that a component of
the exciton relaxation dynamics occurs on timescales longer than 1 ns. The
ultra-narrow resonance (<0.2 {\mu}eV) emerges with increasing excitation
intensity, and implies the existence of a long-lived state whose lifetime
exceeds 6 ns.Comment: (PRL, in press
Azithromycin Synergizes with Cationic Antimicrobial Peptides to Exert Bactericidal and Therapeutic Activity Against Highly Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacterial Pathogens
AbstractAntibiotic resistance poses an increasingly grave threat to the public health. Of pressing concern, rapid spread of carbapenem-resistance among multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative rods (GNR) is associated with few treatment options and high mortality rates. Current antibiotic susceptibility testing guiding patient management is performed in a standardized manner, identifying minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) in bacteriologic media, but ignoring host immune factors. Lacking activity in standard MIC testing, azithromycin (AZM), the most commonly prescribed antibiotic in the U.S., is never recommended for MDR GNR infection. Here we report a potent bactericidal action of AZM against MDR carbapenem-resistant isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii. This pharmaceutical activity is associated with enhanced AZM cell penetration in eukaryotic tissue culture media and striking multi-log-fold synergies with host cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide LL-37 or the last line antibiotic colistin. Finally, AZM monotherapy exerts clear therapeutic effects in murine models of MDR GNR infection. Our results suggest that AZM, currently ignored as a treatment option, could benefit patients with MDR GNR infections, especially in combination with colistin
Molecular composition and volatility of isoprene photochemical oxidation secondary organic aerosol under low- and high-NOx conditions
Here, we present measurements of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from isoprene photochemical oxidation in an environmental simulation chamber at a variety of oxidant conditions and using dry neutral seed particles to suppress acid-catalyzed multiphase chemistry. A high-resolution time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-CIMS) utilizing iodide-adduct ionization coupled to the Filter Inlet for Gases and Aerosols (FIGAERO) allowed for simultaneous online sampling of the gas and particle composition. Under high-HO 2 and low-NO conditions, highly oxygenated (O : C ≥ 1) C 5 compounds were major components (~50%) of SOA. The SOA composition and effective volatility evolved both as a function of time and as a function of input NO concentrations. Organic nitrates increased in both the gas and particle phases as input NO increased, but the dominant non-nitrate particle-phase components monotonically decreased. We use comparisons of measured and predicted gas-particle partitioning of individual components to assess the validity of literature-based group-contribution methods for estimating saturation vapor concentrations. While there is evidence for equilibrium partitioning being achieved on the chamber residence timescale (5.2 h) for some individual components, significant errors in group-contribution methods are revealed. In addition, >30% of the SOA mass, detected as low-molecular-weight semivolatile compounds, cannot be reconciled withmore » equilibrium partitioning. These compounds desorb from the FIGAERO at unexpectedly high temperatures given their molecular composition, which is indicative of thermal decomposition of effectively lower-volatility components such as larger molecular weight oligomers.« les
First radial velocity results from the MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA)
The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a dedicated
observatory of four 0.7m robotic telescopes fiber-fed to a KiwiSpec
spectrograph. The MINERVA mission is to discover super-Earths in the habitable
zones of nearby stars. This can be accomplished with MINERVA's unique
combination of high precision and high cadence over long time periods. In this
work, we detail changes to the MINERVA facility that have occurred since our
previous paper. We then describe MINERVA's robotic control software, the
process by which we perform 1D spectral extraction, and our forward modeling
Doppler pipeline. In the process of improving our forward modeling procedure,
we found that our spectrograph's intrinsic instrumental profile is stable for
at least nine months. Because of that, we characterized our instrumental
profile with a time-independent, cubic spline function based on the profile in
the cross dispersion direction, with which we achieved a radial velocity
precision similar to using a conventional "sum-of-Gaussians" instrumental
profile: 1.8 m s over 1.5 months on the RV standard star HD 122064.
Therefore, we conclude that the instrumental profile need not be perfectly
accurate as long as it is stable. In addition, we observed 51 Peg and our
results are consistent with the literature, confirming our spectrograph and
Doppler pipeline are producing accurate and precise radial velocities.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PASP, Peer-Reviewed and Accepte
PHF6 regulates phenotypic plasticity through chromatin organization within lineage-specific genes
Developmental and lineage plasticity have been observed in numerous malignancies and have been correlated with tumor progression and drug resistance. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that enable such plasticity to occur. Here, we describe the function of the plant homeodomain finger protein 6 (PHF6) in leukemia and define its role in regulating chromatin accessibility to lineage-specific transcription factors. We show that loss of Phf6 in B-cell leukemia results in systematic changes in gene expression via alteration of the chromatin landscape at the transcriptional start sites of B-cell- and T-cell-specific factors. Additionally, Phf6KO cells show significant down-regulation of genes involved in the development and function of normal B cells, show up-regulation of genes involved in T-cell signaling, and give rise to mixed-lineage lymphoma in vivo. Engagement of divergent transcriptional programs results in phenotypic plasticity that leads to altered disease presentation in vivo, tolerance of aberrant oncogenic signaling, and differential sensitivity to frontline and targeted therapies. These findings suggest that active maintenance of a precise chromatin landscape is essential for sustaining proper leukemia cell identity and that loss of a single factor (PHF6) can cause focal changes in chromatin accessibility and nucleosome positioning that render cells susceptible to lineage transition.National Cancer Institute ; F31-CA183405 - National Institutes of Health ; 1122374 - National Science Foundation ; Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; Koch Institute ; Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center ; P30-CA14051 - Koch Institute ; NCI ; NIH ; National Science Foundatio
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