A family of Koszul self-injective algebras with finite Hochschild cohomology

This paper presents an infinite family of Koszul self-injective algebras whose Hochschild cohomology ring is finite-dimensional. Moreover, for each $N \geq 5$ we give an example where the Hochschild cohomology ring has dimension $N$. This family of algebras includes and generalizes the 4-dimensional Koszul self-injective local algebras of Buchweitz, Green, Madsen and Solberg, which were used to give a negative answer to Happel's question, in that they have infinite global dimension but finite-dimensional Hochschild cohomology.Comment: 17 page

Relational Aggression in College Students

Researchers have long theorized that females may be as equally aggressive as males, but the form of aggression most frequently manifested by females may be nonphysical. This thinking lead to the examination of relational aggression, which is a type of aggression intended to harm others\u27 peer relationships. Numerous studies over the last 20 years have examined relational aggression in children and the maladaptive behaviors associated with such aggression. However, far less is known about relational aggression in older students or young adults. Thus, this paper reviews the present literature on relational aggression in college students, focusing on three potential predictors (emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, and conduct problems). Seventy-eight undergraduate college students participated in this study. Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted; the first was to test whether emotion dysregulation predicted relational aggression while controlling for relevant variables, and the second was to test whether the impulse control difficulties Subscale of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale predicted relation aggression while controlling for relevant variables. A gender difference in relational aggression behaviors was not found, in contrast to what is usually found in the child literature. lmpulsivity and conduct problems were found to positively predict relational aggression while controlling for gender. Emotion dysregulation did not contribute additive predictive value to relational aggression. However, impulse control emotion dysregulation difficulties positively predicted relational aggression, even after controlling for the other variables in the study

Natural Variation in Sensitivity to a Loss of Chloroplast Translation in Arabidopsis

This dissertation describes my role in an NSF-funded research project in the Meinke laboratory that began as a natural variation study and genetic analysis to uncover the nuclear genes involved in the differing responses of plant species to a loss of chloroplast translation. To identify these nuclear genes, we analyzed 152 natural accessions of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) on spectinomycin, an inhibitor of chloroplast translation, and crossed wild-type plants of the tolerant Tsu-0 accession with plants segregating for an embryo-defective (emb) mutation that eliminated chloroplast translation in the sensitive “Nossen” accession. Through this study, we found a single suppressor locus (ACC2), an enhancer of the suppressor, and additional modifiers that further increase embryo development. After determining that ACC2 suppresses the loss of chloroplast translation in emb mutants, we expanded our project to include a detailed analysis of defects in ACC2 and the consequences of various mutations on a class of proteins essential for growth and development in plants. Remarkably, some of the most sensitive accessions contain null alleles of ACC2, including “Nossen”. For the final part of my role in this project, I focused on using a candidate gene approach to identify additional genetic modifiers of this system. Overall, the project described throughout this dissertation utilized natural variation in Arabidopsis accessions to study the effects of mutations, especially deleterious mutations, on a protein (ACCase) that is essential for fatty acid biosynthesis in eukaryotes. We also developed an understanding of some of the mechanisms behind the diverse phenotypic responses plant species have when translation of the chloroplast genome is blocked. Furthermore, our identification of accessions hypersensitive to spectinomycin has led to a more efficient method for plastid transformation in Arabidopsis (Yu et al., 2017).Plant Science (Ph.D

SARS‑CoV‑2 entry into and evolution within a skilled nursing facility

SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the family Coronaviridae which includes multiple human pathogens that have an outsized impact on aging populations. As a novel human pathogen, SARS-CoV-2 is undergoing continuous adaptation to this new host species and there is evidence of this throughout the scientific and public literature. However, most investigations of SARS-CoV-2 evolution have focused on largescale collections of data across diverse populations and/or living environments. Here we investigate SARS-CoV-2 evolution in epidemiologically linked individuals within a single outbreak at a skilled nursing facility beginning with initial introduction of the pathogen. The data demonstrate that SARSCoV- 2 was introduced to the facility multiple times without establishing an interfacility transmission chain, followed by a single introduction that infected many individuals within a week. This largescale introduction by a single genotype then persisted in the facility. SARS-CoV-2 sequences were investigated at both the consensus and intra-host variation levels. Understanding the variability in SARS-CoV-2 during transmission chains will assist in understanding the spread of this disease and can ultimately inform best practices for mitigation strategies

What Can Go Wrong When Everything is Right? Using Organizational Justice to Understand Police Misconduct and Improve Personnel Systems

Despite decades of attention paid to police reform, cases of office misconduct still continue to plague policing organizations. Assuming that organizations may still experience such officer malfeasance even when attempting to pursue best practices, we aim to explore how things can go wrong when everything else seems right. Specifically, we rely on trickle-down models of organizational justice, group engagement, and social identity to articulate how otherwise desirable organizational outcomes may produce detrimental outgroup biases. Based on our theoretical premise, we articulate specific changes that may be made to personnel systems that can avoid such officer misconduct in policing contexts

Evaluation of the accuracy of bacterial genome reconstruction with Oxford Nanopore R10.4.1 long-read-only sequencing

Whole genome reconstruction of bacterial pathogens has become an important tool for tracking transmission and antimicrobial resistance gene spread, but highly accurate and complete assemblies have largely only historically been achievable using hybrid long and short-read sequencing. We previously found the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) R10.4/kit12 flowcell/chemistry produced improved assemblies over the R9.4.1/kit10 combination, however long-read only assemblies contained more errors compared to Illumina-ONT hybrid assemblies. ONT have since released an R10.4.1/kit14 flowcell/chemistry upgrade and recommended the use of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) during library preparation, both of which reportedly increase accuracy and yield. They have also released updated basecallers trained using native bacterial DNA containing methylation sites intended to fix systematic basecalling errors, including common adenosine (A) to guanine (G) and cytosine (C) to thymine (T) substitutions. To evaluate these improvements, we successfully sequenced four bacterial reference strains, namely Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, and nine genetically diverse E. coli bloodstream infection-associated isolates from different phylogroups and sequence types, both with and without BSA. These sequences were de novo assembled and compared against Illumina-corrected reference genomes. In this small evaluation of 13 isolates we found that nanopore long read-only R10.4.1/kit 14 assemblies with updated basecallers trained using bacterial methylated DNA produce accurate assemblies with ≥40x depth, sufficient to be cost-effective compared with hybrid ONT/Illumina sequencing in our setting

Futile treatment in hospital: Doctors' intergroup language

Treatment that will not provide significant net benefit at the end of a person’s life (called futile treatment) is considered by many people to represent a major problem in the health sector, as it can waste resources and raise significant ethical issues. Medical treatment at the end of life involves a complex negotiation that implicates intergroup communication between health professionals, patients, and families, as well as between groups of health professionals. This study, framed by intergroup language theory, analyzed data from a larger project on futile treatment, in order to examine the intergroup language associated with futile treatment. Hospital doctors (N = 96) were interviewed about their understanding of treatment given to adult patients at the end of life that they considered futile. We conducted a discourse analysis on doctors’ descriptions of futile treatment provided by themselves and their in-group and out-group colleagues. Results pointed to an intergroup context, with patients, families, and colleagues as out-groups. In their descriptions, doctors justified their own decisions using the language of logic, ethics, and respect. Patients and families, however, were characterized in terms of wishing and wanting, as were outgroup colleagues. In addition, out-group doctors were described in strongly negative intergroup language

NamesforLife Semantic Resolution Services for the Life Sciences

A major challenge in bioinformatics, life sciences, and medicine is using correct and informative names. While this sounds simple enough, many different naming conventions exist in the life sciences and medicine that may be either complementary or competitive with other naming conventions. For a variety of reasons, proper names are not always used, leading to an accumulated semantic ambiguity that readers of the literature and end users of databases are left to resolve on their own. This ambiguity is a growing problem and the biocuration community is aware of its consequences. 

To assist those confronted with ambiguous names (which not only includes researchers but clinicians, manufacturers, patent attorneys, and others who use biological data in their routine work), we developed a generalizable semantic model that represents names, concepts, and exemplars (representations of biological entities) as distinct objects. By identifying each object with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) it becomes possible to place forward-pointing links in the published literature, in databases, and vector graphics that can be used as part of a mechanism for resolving ambiguities, thereby “future proofing” a nomenclature or terminology. A full implementation of the N4L model for the _Bacteria_ and _Archaea_ was released in April, 2010. The system is professionally curated and represents a Tier III resource in Parkhill’s view of bioinformatic services. A variety of tools and web services have been developed for readers, publishers, and others (N4L Guide, N4L Autotagger, N4L Semantic Search, N4L Taxonomic Abstracts) and we are incorporating other taxonomies into the N4L data model, as well as adding additional phenotypic, genotypic, and genomic information to the existing exemplars to add greater value to end users

A Multi-institutional Geoportal to Enhance Geospatial Data Discoverability and Increase Accessibility

Geospatial data and methodologies are becoming increasingly popular in fields beyond Geography. The exponential increase in geospatial data sets available to users and varied platforms on which they are served can make data searches difficult and leave some data undiscovered, particularly for users with more limited knowledge of geospatial data sources. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which provides unique opportunities for and supports collaborative efforts among Big Ten member universities plus the University of Chicago, initiated the CIC Geospatial Data Discovery Project to enhance geospatial data discoverability and access among member institutions. Nine of the fifteen institutions have come together to develop and populate a geoportal for use by all member institutions. GeoBlacklight was identified as the best architecture option for the geoportal due to its open-source platform, strong development community and documentation, intuitive interface, and easy metadata integration. Institutions have developed workflows for identifying candidate geospatial datasets and harvesting and converting associated metadata records. Selected datasets include substantial state-specific geospatial data holdings along with georeferenced map collections. The collaborative nature of this project serves to reduce workload among individual institutions, simply workflow, encourage communication between institutions, and increase geospatial data collections for each institution