Managing a 21st-Century Newsroom Workforce: A Case Study of NYC News Media

In recent years, much has been made of the introduction of new skills into the modern newsroom. The modern business environment, including ongoing technological change, globalization, and the fluid movement of professional workers, has set the stage for significant change in industry practices. Today’s professional newsroom worker is the latest iteration in the emergence of new skills that embody the ongoing reframing of the nature of the industry as a whole. Thus, this research report examines the changing nature of the twenty-first-century newsroom workforce, focusing on the skills and job roles that exist in newsrooms today. In order to address the evolving skills and job roles, the researchers used a case study approach and examined thousands of job listings, employment postings, and company profiles for news media companies in the New York City metropolitan area. The analysis of the data utilizes social network analysis to assess the development of new genres of newsworkers, specifically job roles that represent the intersection of traditional newsroom positions with data, analytics, and platform-oriented (herein referred to as DAP) job roles. As the nature of newsrooms continues to evolve, the current definition of newswork and newsworker requires new thinking.i Specifically, the focus of this research is on understanding the employment trajectories of newsworkers such as programmers, coders, data specialists, and those dedicated solely to producing content for social and mobile platforms, as opposed to traditional newsworkers

Time-Resolved Ultrafast Transient Polarization Spectroscopy to Investigate Nonlinear Processes and Dynamics in Electronically Excited Molecules on the Femtosecond Time Scale

We report a novel experimental technique to investigate ultrafast dynamics in photoexcited molecules by probing the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility. A non-colinear 3-pulse scheme is developed to probe the ultrafast dynamics of excited electronic states using the optical Kerr effect by time-resolved polarization spectroscopy. Optical heterodyne and optical homodyne detection are demonstrated to measure the third-order nonlinear optical response for the S1 excited state of liquid nitrobenzene, which is populated by 2-photon absorption of a 780 nm 35 fs excitation pulse.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Changes from previous version: added panel labels to figures 3-

Isoprenoids determine Th1/Th2 fate in pathogenic T cells, providing a mechanism of modulation of autoimmunity by atorvastatin.

3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase is a critical enzyme in the mevalonate pathway that regulates the biosynthesis of cholesterol as well as isoprenoids that mediate the membrane association of certain GTPases. Blockade of this enzyme by atorvastatin (AT) inhibits the destructive proinflammatory T helper cell (Th)1 response during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and may be beneficial in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other Th1-mediated autoimmune diseases. Here we present evidence linking specific isoprenoid intermediates of the mevalonate pathway to signaling pathways that regulate T cell autoimmunity. We demonstrate that the isoprenoid geranylgeranyl-pyrophosphate (GGPP) mediates proliferation, whereas both GGPP and its precursor, farnesyl-PP, regulate the Th1 differentiation of myelin-reactive T cells. Depletion of these isoprenoid intermediates in vivo via oral AT administration hindered these T cell responses by decreasing geranylgeranylated RhoA and farnesylated Ras at the plasma membrane. This was associated with reduced extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 phosphorylation and DNA binding of their cotarget c-fos in response to T cell receptor activation. Inhibition of ERK and p38 mimicked the effects of AT and induced a Th2 cytokine shift. Thus, by connecting isoprenoid availability to regulation of Th1/Th2 fate, we have elucidated a mechanism by which AT may suppress Th1-mediated central nervous system autoimmune disease

Sliver® modules - a crystalline silicon technology of the future

A new technique has been devised for the manufacture of thin (<60µm) highly efficient single crystalline solar cells. Novel methods of encapsulating these Sliver® solar cells have also been devised. Narrow grooves are formed through a 1-2mm thick wafer. Device processing (diffusion, oxidation, deposition) is performed on the wafer, so that each of the narrow strips becomes a solar cell. The strips are then detached from the wafer and laid on their sides, which greatly increases the surface area of solar cell that can be obtained from the wafer. Further gains of a factor of two can be obtained by utilising a simple method of static concentration. Large decreases in processing effort (up to 30-fold) and silicon usage (up to 10-fold) per m2 of module are possible. The size, thickness and bifacial nature of the cells create the opportunity for a wide variety of module architectures and applications

Ultrafast Dynamics of Excited Electronic States in Nitrobenzene Measured by Ultrafast Transient Polarization Spectroscopy.

We investigate ultrafast dynamics of the lowest singlet excited electronic state in liquid nitrobenzene using ultrafast transient polarization spectroscopy, extending the well-known technique of optical Kerr effect spectroscopy to excited electronic states. The third-order nonlinear response of the excited molecular ensemble is measured using a pair of femtosecond pulses following a third femtosecond pulse that populates the S1 excited state. By measuring this response, which is highly sensitive to details of the excited state character and structure, as a function of time delays between the three pulses involved, we extract the dephasing time of the wave packet on the excited state. The dephasing time, measured as a function of time delay after pump excitation, shows oscillations indicating oscillatory wave packet dynamics on the excited state. From the experimental measurements and supporting theoretical calculations, we deduce that the wave packet completely leaves the S1 state potential energy surface after three traversals of the intersystem crossing between the singlet S1 and triplet T2 states

2-[4-(Methyl­sulfan­yl)phen­yl]naphtho[1,8-de][1,3,2]diaza­borinane

The title compound, C17H15BN2S, is one member in a series of diaza­borinanes featuring substitution at the 1-, 2- and 3-positions in the nitro­gen–boron heterocycle. The dihedral angle between the mean planes of the naphthalene and phenyl ring systems is 19.86 (6)°. In the crystal structure, two C—H⋯π inter­actions link the mol­ecules into sheets which lie parallel to the bc plane. There is a π–π inter­action between each pair of centrosymmetrically related sheets [centroid–centroid distance = 3.5922 (8) Å]

Changes in epithelial proportions and transcriptional state underlie major premenopausal breast cancer risks

The human breast undergoes lifelong remodeling in response to estrogen and progesterone, but hormone exposure also increases breast cancer risk. Here, we use single-cell analysis to identify distinct mechanisms through which breast composition and cell state affect hormone signaling. We show that prior pregnancy reduces the transcriptional response of hormone-responsive (HR+) epithelial cells, whereas high body mass index (BMI) reduces overall HR+ cell proportions. These distinct changes both impact neighboring cells by effectively reducing the magnitude of paracrine signals originating from HR+ cells. Because pregnancy and high BMI are known to protect against hormone-dependent breast cancer in premenopausal women, our findings directly link breast cancer risk with person-to-person heterogeneity in hormone responsiveness. More broadly, our findings illustrate how cell proportions and cell state can collectively impact cell communities through the action of cell-to-cell signaling networks

Building Community and Tools for Analyzing Web Archives through Datathons

Starting in March 2016, the Archives Unleashed team and our collaborators have brought together social scientists, humanists, archivists, librarians, computer scientists, and other stakeholders to explore web archives as research objects. Three objectives motivated our team to develop and organize these events: facilitating scholarly access, community building, and skills training. We believe that we have been successful on all three fronts. For each event, over the course of two to three days, participants formed interdisciplinary teams and explored web archives using a variety of methods and tools. This paper details our experiences in designing these "datathons", with an intent to share lessons learned, highlight interdisciplinary approaches to research and education on web archives, and describe future opportunities.This research was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the National Science Foundation (Grants #1624067, #1723430), Start Smart Labs, Rutgers University, Compute Canada, University of Waterloo, and York University. Additional support came from University of Toronto Libraries, Library of Congress, Internet Archive, British Library, the International Internet Preservation Consortium, Simon Fraser University Libraries, SFU Key, and Université du Québec en Outaouais

T cell epitope: Friend or Foe? Immunogenicity of biologics in context

Like vaccines, biologic proteins can be very immunogenic for reasons including route of administration, dose frequency and the underlying antigenicity of the therapeutic protein. Because the impact of immunogenicity can be quite severe, regulatory agencies are developing risk-based guidelines for immunogenicity screening. T cell epitopes are at the root of the immunogenicity issue. Through their presentation to T cells, they activate the process of anti-drug antibody development. Preclinical screening for T cell epitopes can be performed in silico, followed by in vitro and in vivo validation. Importantly, screening for immunogenicity is complicated by the discovery of regulatory T cell epitopes, which suggests that immunogenicity testing must now take regulatory T cells into consideration. In this review, we address the application of computational tools for preclinical immunogenicity assessment, the implication of the discovery of regulatory T cell epitopes, and experimental validation of those assessments

Long-Range Exciton Diffusion in Two-Dimensional Assemblies of Cesium Lead Bromide Perovskite Nanocrystals

F\"orster Resonant Energy Transfer (FRET)-mediated exciton diffusion through artificial nanoscale building block assemblies could be used as a new optoelectronic design element to transport energy. However, so far nanocrystal (NC) systems supported only diffusion length of 30 nm, which are too small to be useful in devices. Here, we demonstrate a FRET-mediated exciton diffusion length of 200 nm with 0.5 cm2/s diffusivity through an ordered, two-dimensional assembly of cesium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals (PNC). Exciton diffusion was directly measured via steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) microscopy, with physical modeling providing deeper insight into the transport process. This exceptionally efficient exciton transport is facilitated by PNCs high PL quantum yield, large absorption cross-section, and high polarizability, together with minimal energetic and geometric disorder of the assembly. This FRET-mediated exciton diffusion length matches perovskites optical absorption depth, opening the possibility to design new optoelectronic device architectures with improved performances, and providing insight into the high conversion efficiencies of PNC-based optoelectronic devices