Big-Data-Driven Materials Science and its FAIR Data Infrastructure

This chapter addresses the forth paradigm of materials research -- big-data driven materials science. Its concepts and state-of-the-art are described, and its challenges and chances are discussed. For furthering the field, Open Data and an all-embracing sharing, an efficient data infrastructure, and the rich ecosystem of computer codes used in the community are of critical importance. For shaping this forth paradigm and contributing to the development or discovery of improved and novel materials, data must be what is now called FAIR -- Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-purposable/Re-usable. This sets the stage for advances of methods from artificial intelligence that operate on large data sets to find trends and patterns that cannot be obtained from individual calculations and not even directly from high-throughput studies. Recent progress is reviewed and demonstrated, and the chapter is concluded by a forward-looking perspective, addressing important not yet solved challenges.Comment: submitted to the Handbook of Materials Modeling (eds. S. Yip and W. Andreoni), Springer 2018/201

Seek Help from Teachers or Fight Back? Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Actions during Conflicts and Responses to Peer Victimization

Previous research has shown that teachers’ actions when addressing conflict on school grounds can shape adolescent perceptions regarding how well the school manages victimization. Our objective in this study was to determine how these perceptions influenced the likelihood that adolescent students would react to victimization scenarios by either seeking help from school authority or physically fighting back. Vignettes describing two events of victimization were administered to 148 ethnic minority adolescents (Latino, African American, and Asian backgrounds; 49% female) attending an urban high school with high rates of conflict. Positive perceptions of teachers’ actions during conflicts—assessed via a questionnaire tapping how teachers manage student conflicts both generally and in a specific instance of strife—predicted a greater willingness to seek help from school authority, which in turn negatively predicted self-reported aggressive responses to the victimization scenarios. Path analysis established the viability of this indirect effect model, even when we controlled for sex, beliefs about the acceptability of aggression, and previous levels of reactive aggression. Adolescents’ perceptions of teachers’ actions during conflicts are discussed in relation to social information processing models, improving student–teacher relations, and decreasing aggression at schools

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Mechanical stability of the CMS strip tracker measured with a laser alignment system

Peer reviewe

Community Violence and Youth: Affect, Behavior, Substance Use, and Academics

Community violence is recognized as a major public health problem (WHO, World Report on Violence and Health,2002) that Americans increasingly understand has adverse implications beyond inner-cities. However, the majority of research on chronic community violence exposure focuses on ethnic minority, impoverished, and/or crime-ridden communities while treatment and prevention focuses on the perpetrators of the violence, not on the youth who are its direct or indirect victims. School-based treatment and preventive interventions are needed for children at elevated risk for exposure to community violence. In preparation, a longitudinal, community epidemiological study, The Multiple Opportunities to Reach Excellence (MORE) Project, is being fielded to address some of the methodological weaknesses presented in previous studies. This study was designed to better understand the impact of children’s chronic exposure to community violence on their emotional, behavioral, substance use, and academic functioning with an overarching goal to identify malleable risk and protective factors which can be targeted in preventive and intervention programs. This paper describes the MORE Project, its conceptual underpinnings, goals, and methodology, as well as implications for treatment and preventive interventions and future research

Effects of Hypoxia Exposure on Hepatic Cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) Expression in Atlantic Croaker: Molecular Mechanisms of CYP1A Down-Regulation

Hypoxia-inducible factor-α (HIF-α) and cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) are biomarkers of environmental exposure to hypoxia and organic xenobiotic chemicals that act through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, respectively. Many aquatic environments heavily contaminated with organic chemicals, such as harbors, are also hypoxic. Recently, we and other scientists reported HIF-α genes are upregulated by hypoxia exposure in aquatic organisms, but the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia regulation of CYP1A expression have not been investigated in teleost fishes. As a first step in understanding the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia modulation of CYP1A expression in fish, we characterized CYP1A cDNA from croaker liver. Hypoxia exposure (dissolved oxygen, DO: 1.7 mg/L for 2 to 4 weeks) caused significant decreases in hepatic CYP1A mRNA and protein levels compared to CYP1A levels in fish held in normoxic conditions. In vivo studies showed that the nitric oxide (NO)-donor, S-nitroso-N-acetyl-DL-penicillamine, significantly decreased CYP1A expression in croaker livers, whereas the competitive inhibitor of NO synthase (NOS), Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, restored CYP1A mRNA and protein levels in hypoxia-exposed (1.7 mg DO/L for 4 weeks) fish. In vivo hypoxia exposure also markedly increased interleukin-1β (IL-1β, a cytokine), HIF-2α mRNA and endothelial NOS (eNOS) protein levels in croaker livers. Pharmacological treatment with vitamin E, an antioxidant, lowered the IL-1β, HIF-2α mRNA and eNOS protein levels in hypoxia-exposed fish and completely reversed the down-regulation of hepatic CYP1A mRNA and protein levels in response to hypoxia exposure. These results suggest that hypoxia-induced down-regulation of CYP1A is due to alterations of NO and oxidant status, and cellular IL-1β and HIF-α levels. Moreover, the present study provides the first evidence of a role for antioxidants in hepatic eNOS and IL-1β regulation in aquatic vertebrates during hypoxic stress.This study was supported by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Ocean Program Gulf of Mexico GOMEX, grant no. NA09NOS4780179 to PT, publication no. NGOMEX 1**, and National Science Foundation, grant no. IOS-1119242 to PT. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Marine Scienc