An Evaluation of Tennessee Soybean Growers’ Views on a New Generation Cooperative to Produce Biodiesel

Substituting petroleum diesel with biodiesel could decrease air emissions, reduce reliance on foreign oil, and help expand markets for U.S. farmers. Soybean producers can potentially capture this value-added by forward integrating the processing of soybeans into biodiesel via a New Generation Cooperative (NGC). Using probit analysis, this study examines factors influencing soybean producers’ willingness to participate in an NGC to produce biodiesel. Tobit analysis is used to examine the factors influencing the number of shares the soybean producer would be willing to purchase. Survey results indicate that over 70% of the soybean producers in the study group are interested in investing in an NGC to produce biodiesel. Among those producers willing to participate, the average number of shares they would purchase was just under 3,460.biodiesel, New Generation Cooperative, probit analysis, soybean producers, tobit analysis, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Aberrant oligodendroglial-vascular interactions disrupt the blood-brain barrier, triggering CNS inflammation.

Disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is critical to initiation and perpetuation of disease in multiple sclerosis (MS). We report an interaction between oligodendroglia and vasculature in MS that distinguishes human white matter injury from normal rodent demyelinating injury. We find perivascular clustering of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) in certain active MS lesions, representing an inability to properly detach from vessels following perivascular migration. Perivascular OPCs can themselves disrupt the BBB, interfering with astrocyte endfeet and endothelial tight junction integrity, resulting in altered vascular permeability and an associated CNS inflammation. Aberrant Wnt tone in OPCs mediates their dysfunctional vascular detachment and also leads to OPC secretion of Wif1, which interferes with Wnt ligand function on endothelial tight junction integrity. Evidence for this defective oligodendroglial-vascular interaction in MS suggests that aberrant OPC perivascular migration not only impairs their lesion recruitment but can also act as a disease perpetuator via disruption of the BBB

Downregulation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Expression Contributes to α\alpha-TEA's Proapoptotic Effects in Human Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines

RRR-$\alpha$-tocopherol derivative $\alpha$-TEA (RRR-$\alpha$-tocopherol ether-linked acetic acid analog) has been shown to be a potent antitumor agent both in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we investigated the effects of $\alpha$-TEA on the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family members, ErbB1, 2 and 3, and the role of ErbB 2 and 3 in $\alpha$-TEA-induced apoptosis and suppression of Akt, FLIP and survivin in the cisplatin-sensitive (A2780S) and -resistant (A2780/CP70R) human ovarian cancer cell lines. Data show that $\alpha$-TEA's ability to induced apoptosis was associated with reduced expression of ErbB1 (cisplatin-resistant cells), 2 and 3 (both cell types) and reduced levels of the phosphorylated (active) form of Akt; as well as, reduced levels of FLIP and survivin proteins in both cell types. Ectopic overexpression and siRNA knockdown studies showed that ErbB2, ErbB3, Akt, FLIP and survivin are involved in $\alpha$-TEA-induce apoptosis and that $\alpha$-TEA downregulates FLIP and survivin via suppression of pAkt, which is mediated by ErbB2 and ErB3. Thus, $\alpha$-TEA is a potent pro-apoptotic agent for both cisplatin-sensitive and -resistant ovarian cancer cell lines in cell culture and it produces cell death, at least in part, by downregulation of members of the EGFR family

Submm/mm Galaxy Counterpart Identification Using a Characteristic Density Distribution

We present a new submm/mm galaxy counterpart identification technique which builds on the use of Spitzer IRAC colors as discriminators between likely counterparts and the general IRAC galaxy population. Using 102 radio- and SMA-confirmed counterparts to AzTEC sources across three fields (GOODS-N, GOODS-S, and COSMOS), we develop a non-parametric IRAC color-color characteristic density distribution (CDD), which, when combined with positional uncertainty information via likelihood ratios, allows us to rank all potential IRAC counterparts around SMGs and calculate the significance of each ranking via the reliability factor. We report all robust and tentative radio counterparts to SMGs, the first such list available for AzTEC/COSMOS, as well as the highest ranked IRAC counterparts for all AzTEC SMGs in these fields as determined by our technique. We demonstrate that the technique is free of radio bias and thus applicable regardless of radio detections. For observations made with a moderate beamsize (~18"), this technique identifies ~85 per cent of SMG counterparts. For much larger beamsizes (>30"), we report identification rates of 33-49 per cent. Using simulations, we demonstrate that this technique is an improvement over using positional information alone for observations with facilities such as AzTEC on the LMT and SCUBA-2 on JCMT.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Household-level risk factors for secondary influenza-like illness in a rural area of Bangladesh

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.Objective To describe household‐level risk factors for secondary influenza‐like illness (ILI), an important public health concern in the low‐income population of Bangladesh. Methods Secondary analysis of control participants in a randomised controlled trial evaluating the effect of handwashing to prevent household ILI transmission. We recruited index‐case patients with ILI – fever (<5 years); fever, cough or sore throat (≥5 years) – from health facilities, collected information on household factors and conducted syndromic surveillance among household contacts for 10 days after resolution of index‐case patients’ symptoms. We evaluated the associations between household factors at baseline and secondary ILI among household contacts using negative binomial regression, accounting for clustering by household. Results Our sample was 1491 household contacts of 184 index‐case patients. Seventy‐one percentage reported that smoking occurred in their home, 27% shared a latrine with one other household and 36% shared a latrine with >1 other household. A total of 114 household contacts (7.6%) had symptoms of ILI during follow‐up. Smoking in the home (RRadj 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.0) and sharing a latrine with one household (RRadj 2.1, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.6) or >1 household (RRadj 3.1, 95% CI: 1.8–5.2) were independently associated with increased risk of secondary ILI. Conclusion Tobacco use in homes could increase respiratory illness in Bangladesh. The mechanism between use of shared latrines and household ILI transmission is not clear. It is possible that respiratory pathogens could be transmitted through faecal contact or contaminated fomites in shared latrines

Endurance Exercise Training Programs Intestinal Lipid Metabolism in a Rat Model of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Endurance exercise has been shown to improve metabolic outcomes in obesity and type 2 diabetes; however, the physiological and molecular mechanisms for these benefits are not completely understood. Although endurance exercise has been shown to decrease lipogenesis, promote fatty acid oxidation (FAO), and increase mitochondrial biosynthesis in adipose tissue, muscle, and liver, its effects on intestinal lipid metabolism remain unknown. The absorptive cells of the small intestine, enterocytes, mediate the highly efficient absorption and processing of nutrients, including dietary fat for delivery throughout the body. We investigated how endurance exercise altered intestinal lipid metabolism in obesity and type 2 diabetes using Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats. We assessed mRNA levels of genes associated with intestinal lipid metabolism in nonhyperphagic, sedentary Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) rats (L-Sed), hyperphagic, sedentary OLETF rats (O-Sed), and endurance exercised OLETF rats (O-EndEx). O-Sed rats developed hyperphagia-induced obesity (HIO) and type 2 diabetes compared with L-Sed rats. O-EndEx rats gained significantly less weight and fat pad mass, and had improved serum metabolic parameters without change in food consumption compared to O-Sed rats. Endurance exercise resulted in dramatic up-regulation of a number of genes in intestinal lipid metabolism and mitochondrial content compared with sedentary rats. Overall, this study provides evidence that endurance exercise programs intestinal lipid metabolism, likely contributing to its role in improving metabolic outcomes in obesity and type 2 diabetes

Traditional vs. Online Homework in College Algebra

ABSTRACT A year long study was conducted in multiple sections of College Algebra by the authors using a system of both traditional paper homework and online homework assignments. The online homework system was Pearson/Addison-Wesley&apos;s CourseCompass which was integrated with the textbook. This system allows the students multiple attempts at problems with extensive hints and examples while providing instant feedback for every problem. Data was collected from both groups including in-class exam scores, final exam scores, and homework averages. Of particular interest to the investigators was whether one method would help facilitate the understanding and retention of the material better than the other. We present the analysis and the conclusions

Demonstrating impact: Lessons learned from the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council's AOD-Our-Way program

In this paper, we describe the innovative way in which the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council uses “clicker technology� to gather data to report on the key performance indicators of its “AOD-our-way� program, and how, with the subsequent combination of those data with other performance measures, it was possible to go beyond the initial evaluation. The paper also illustrates how the application of survey research methods could further enable enhanced reporting of program outcomes and impacts in an Indigenous context where Indigenous community controlled organisations want to build the evidence base for the issues they care about and ultimately drive their own research agendas

TabText: A Flexible and Contextual Approach to Tabular Data Representation

Tabular data is essential for applying machine learning tasks across various industries. However, traditional data processing methods do not fully utilize all the information available in the tables, ignoring important contextual information such as column header descriptions. In addition, pre-processing data into a tabular format can remain a labor-intensive bottleneck in model development. This work introduces TabText, a processing and feature extraction framework that extracts contextual information from tabular data structures. TabText addresses processing difficulties by converting the content into language and utilizing pre-trained large language models (LLMs). We evaluate our framework on nine healthcare prediction tasks ranging from patient discharge, ICU admission, and mortality. We show that 1) applying our TabText framework enables the generation of high-performing and simple machine learning baseline models with minimal data pre-processing, and 2) augmenting pre-processed tabular data with TabText representations improves the average and worst-case AUC performance of standard machine learning models by as much as 6%

Systems Thinking and Technology Integration as Catalysts for School Change in High Need Schools: IMPACT V and the Alignment of Organizational Ends and Means

As part of a grant project in the state of North Carolina in the United States, eleven schools participated in the IMPACT V project, designed to help infuse technology into middle and high schools across the state. Involvement in the program required the preparation of a detailed action plan identifying how each school would use grant funding, coaching, and graduate-level courses to integrate technology effectively. Faculty assigned to mentor and provide direct instruction to the principals of the participating schools soon determined that there was a high degree of variability in terms of how well prepared principals were to plan, develop, and implement their respective action plans in a systematic fashion. Each school was asked to prepare a logic model designed to help both their planning and implementation of IMPACT V funds through identification of clear goals, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Preliminary results of our study indicate that principals were initially disoriented and confused when introduced to the project, and their preliminary action plans were not grounded in a clear understanding and plan for technology integration. The cohort model provided a lot of necessary support, and the action plans changed over time with statistically significant differences found between pre and post action plans. In terms of participant attitudes, principals have moved from excited and frustrated at the beginning of the project to confident and satisfied as their technology integration action plans have evolved into living documents that have helped them utilize systems thinking in planning and implementing technology into their schools