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Sandpiles, spanning trees, and plane duality

Let G be a connected, loopless multigraph. The sandpile group of G is a finite abelian group associated to G whose order is equal to the number of spanning trees in G. Holroyd et al. used a dynamical process on graphs called rotor-routing to define a simply transitive action of the sandpile group of G on its set of spanning trees. Their definition depends on two pieces of auxiliary data: a choice of a ribbon graph structure on G, and a choice of a root vertex. Chan, Church, and Grochow showed that if G is a planar ribbon graph, it has a canonical rotor-routing action associated to it, i.e., the rotor-routing action is actually independent of the choice of root vertex. It is well-known that the spanning trees of a planar graph G are in canonical bijection with those of its planar dual G*, and furthermore that the sandpile groups of G and G* are isomorphic. Thus, one can ask: are the two rotor-routing actions, of the sandpile group of G on its spanning trees, and of the sandpile group of G* on its spanning trees, compatible under plane duality? In this paper, we give an affirmative answer to this question, which had been conjectured by Baker.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Understanding Teachers’ Perspectives on Being Researched: A Case Study of Two Writing Teachers

In this study, we were interested in understanding writing teachers’ perspectives on being participants in qualitative research. After conducting two independent case studies with one elementary school and one middle school writing teacher, the researchers brought the cases together to explore what it meant for the teachers to participate in research. Particularly, the researchers were interested in understanding how the teachers perceived research to influence their reflection and classroom practice. During retrospective interviews, they discussed how participating in research supported their reflective practice and the extent to which they valued a trusting relationship and philosophical alignment with the researcher. In addition, the teachers stated that by being researched, they were contributing positively to educational research. These findings suggest that researchers should be attentive to the ways in which they cultivate rapport with teachers, particularly through professional networks and learning communities

Asymmetric Effects of Cultural Institutes on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

The Purpose of a Cultural Institute is to Improve International Relations with Other Countries by Promoting Language Familiarity and Cultural Awareness. in Addition, Cultural Institutes Can Provide Additional Business Opportunities that Lead to Positive Economic Side Effects Such as Increases in Trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). in This Study, Gravity Models Were Used to Analyse the Data for the Goethe Institut (Germany), the Cervantes Institute (Spain) and the Confucius Institute (China) to Identify Any Stylised International Patterns of the Documented Economic Effects. the Study Finds Significant Positive Effects on Bilateral Trade and FDI Outflows for All Three Programmes, Along with Two Important (I) the Effects Are Stronger for Non-Advanced Economies and (Ii) the Effects Are Substantially Larger on FDI Than on Trade. These Results Suggest that Cultural Institutes Can Be an Effective Policy Tool in Promoting FDI Outflows, with the Strongest Effect Realised When a Home Country Locates its Cultural Institutes in Host Countries with Developing Economies. Importantly, Results Also Suggest that the Chinese Government\u27s Approach to Extend its Soft Power through Rapid Expansion of Confucius Institutes Worldwide Has Not Been as Successful as the Efforts by the German Goethe Institut in Increasing Trade and FDI

The effect of thiol reagents on GABA transport in rat brain synaptosomes

AbstractThe nature of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transport has been investigated in preparations of rat brain synaptosomes using a number of thiol reagents with varying membrane permeabilities. N-Ethylmaleimide, p-chloromercuribenzoate and p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonate effectively inhibited GABA transport in both directions (i.e., uptake and release) whereas 5,5′ -dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoate, mercaptopropionate and N-nitroethylenediamine were much less effective, or ineffective, even at millimolar concentrations. For each of the thiol reagents, the inhibition profile for GABA uptake was approximately the same as that for its release. The effectiveness of the reagents indicates that there is an external, reactable SH-group on the transporter, that the thiol reagent must be somewhat lipophilic for it to react with the SH-group(s) and that the same synaptosomal transport system is responsible for both uptake and release of GABA

Nostalgia, belonging and mattering: an institutional framework for digital collegiality drawn from teachers’ experience of online delivery during the 2020 pandemic

This article explores the experiences of two teachers in different institutions (UK and China) specifically selected for this study because of their largely positive institutional experiences of using technology during the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020. Our aim is to understand the emotional outcomes relative to their uses of technology, whilst working from home. In this study, we asked, “what is the role of technology in the affective outcomes of teaching during the pandemic when everyone was at home?” and “Why might teachers feel a sense of nostalgia for a moment of educational crisis?” A proposal was submitted and gained ethical approval from the University of Derby. A qualitative methodology was adopted using semi-structured online interviews and inductive analysis. We address concerns that ‘sense of belonging’ may be an incomplete account of the emotional landscape arising from the use of technology during this educational emergency. We identify three ways in which technology was used and which made experience (1) flexible (2) communal, and (3) visible. We map these uses onto corresponding emotional outcomes which are (1) mattering (2) belonging (3) nostalgia. As a result, we provide a model of ‘E-Motional Good Practice’ in support of institutional, and digital collegiality. Finally, we consider implications for university education departments

Cohesin cleavage by separase is enhanced by a substrate motif distinct from the cleavage site.

Chromosome segregation begins when the cysteine protease, separase, cleaves the Scc1 subunit of cohesin at the metaphase-to-anaphase transition. Separase is inhibited prior to metaphase by the tightly bound securin protein, which contains a pseudosubstrate motif that blocks the separase active site. To investigate separase substrate specificity and regulation, here we develop a system for producing recombinant, securin-free human separase. Using this enzyme, we identify an LPE motif on the Scc1 substrate that is distinct from the cleavage site and is required for rapid and specific substrate cleavage. Securin also contains a conserved LPE motif, and we provide evidence that this sequence blocks separase engagement of the Scc1 LPE motif. Our results suggest that rapid cohesin cleavage by separase requires a substrate docking interaction outside the active site. This interaction is blocked by securin, providing a second mechanism by which securin inhibits cohesin cleavage

Calipso Observations of the Dependence of Homo- and Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation in Cirrus Clouds on Latitude, Season and Surface Condition

There are two fundamental mechanisms through which cirrus clouds form; homo- and heterogeneous ice nucleation (henceforth hom and het). The relative contribution of each mechanism to ice crystal production often determines the microphysical and radiative properties of a cirrus cloud. A new satellite remote sensing method is described in this study to estimate cirrus cloud ice particle number concentration and the relative contribution of hom and het to cirrus cloud formation as a function of altitude, latitude, season and surface type (e.g. land vs. ocean). This method uses co-located observations from the Infrared Imaging Radiometer (IIR) and from the CALIOP (Cloud and Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) lidar aboard the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) polar orbiting satellite, employing IIR channels at 10.6 m and 12.05 m. The method is applied here to single-layered clouds of visible optical depth between about 0.3 and 3. Two years of Version 3 data have been analyzed for the years 2008 and 2013, with each season characterized in terms of 532 nm cirrus cloud centroid altitude and temperature, the cirrus cloud ice particle number concentration, effective diameter, layer-average ice water content and visible optical depth. Using a conservative criterion for hom cirrus, on average, the sampled cirrus clouds formed through hom occur about 43% of the time in the Arctic and 50% of the time in the Antarctic, and during winter at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, hom cirrus occur 37% of the time. Elsewhere (and during other seasons in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes), this hom cirrus fraction is lower. Processes that could potentially explain these observations are discussed, as well as the potential relevancy of these results to ice nucleation studies, climate modeling and jet-stream dynamics

Systematic Analysis of Quantitative Logic Model Ensembles Predicts Drug Combination Effects on Cell Signaling Networks

A major challenge in developing anticancer therapies is determining the efficacies of drugs and their combinations in physiologically relevant microenvironments. We describe here our application of “constrained fuzzy logic” (CFL) ensemble modeling of the intracellular signaling network for predicting inhibitor treatments that reduce the phospho-levels of key transcription factors downstream of growth factors and inflammatory cytokines representative of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironments. We observed that the CFL models successfully predicted the effects of several kinase inhibitor combinations. Furthermore, the ensemble predictions revealed ambiguous predictions that could be traced to a specific structural feature of these models, which we resolved with dedicated experiments, finding that IL-1α activates downstream signals through TAK1 and not MEKK1 in HepG2 cells. We conclude that CFL-Q2LM (Querying Quantitative Logic Models) is a promising approach for predicting effective anticancer drug combinations in cancer-relevant microenvironments.United States. Army Research Office (W911NF-09-0001