Chamblee High School Extended Learning Time Optimization Project

The following is a report on the design and documentation of a program meant to assist Chamblee High School. The definition of the problem, front and back-end development, analysis of the program, integration between programs, final results and conclusions contained within the report contain multitudes of information about the system and recommendations for the continued development of the program after the involvement of the Kennesaw Industrial Education Team. The basic problem of the project is the organization of information flow. To solve problems with the basic solution to organization within the school, the team must develop a method to creating a software that will assign students and teachers within the new flexible learning period that Chamblee intends to integrate into its block schedule in the fall semester, 2022. In response to the problems with the baseline solution, the team developed a new flowchart that would alleviate the problems presented by it and found a method of testing the program quality to check if the final product was sufficient or if new tools would need to be recommended. The front-end development was handled entirely through the preferred system, Coda.io, at the recommendation of the client. The development of the software was temporarily halted due to the legal ramifications behind student anonymity and the school’s inability to share information, but the development of the software served to establish the future for a new software. The front-end accomplished the creation of a teacher and student view that accomplished most requirements of the interface. The back-end development accomplished the stated goals of the algorithm and servers but was not optimal because of the difficulties integrating with Coda.io and involved the use of MySQL, R, and Python. Integration proved to be the most intense challenge of the project. Maintaining the data structure and working with the suboptimal routines for data transfer in Coda.io made the process incredibly difficult. Employing the use of API, third-party servers, and Python after the initial solution recommended by the developers at Coda.io, Zapier, failed to be capable of the data transfer that was necessary. After the analysis of the program revealed a less than optimal software quality, and that the program on review did not meet all requirements of the software due to limitations in Coda.io, the team is forced to make recommendations that involve the abandonment of Coda.io as a platform and strategies to rework the current back-end development and servers to create a smoother overall program

A Simple Talk

https://commons.pacificu.edu/crt/1006/thumbnail.jp

Data Analytics for Uncovering Fraudulent Behaviour in Elite Sports

Sports officials around the world are facing societal challenges due to the unfair nature of fraudulent practices performed by unscrupulous athletes. Recently, sample swapping has been raised as a potential practice where some athletes exchange their doped sample with a clean one to evade a positive test. The current detection method for such cases includes laboratory testing like DNA analysis. However, these methods are costly and time-consuming, which goes beyond the budgetary limits of anti-doping organisations. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative methods to improve decision-making. We presented a data analytical methodology that supports anti-doping decision-makers on the task of athlete disambiguation. Our proposed model helps identify the swapped sample, which outperforms the current state-of-the-art method and different baseline models. The evaluation on real-world sample swapping cases shows promising results that help advance the research on the application of data analytics in the context of anti-doping analysis

Filters in C*-Algebras

In this paper we analyze states on C*-algebras and their relationship to filter-like structures of projections and positive elements in the unit ball. After developing the basic theory we use this to investigate the Kadison-Singer conjecture, proving its equivalence to an apparently quite weak paving conjecture and the existence of unique maximal centred extensions of projections coming from ultrafilters on the natural numbers. We then prove that Reid's positive answer to this for q-points in fact also holds for rapid p-points, and that maximal centred filters are obtained in this case. We then show that consistently such maximal centred filters do not exist at all meaning that, for every pure state on the Calkin algebra, there exist projections p and q on which the state is 1, even though it is bounded strictly below 1 for projections below both p and q. Lastly we investigate towers, using cardinal invariant equalities to construct towers on the natural numbers that do and do not remain towers when canonically embedded into the Calkin algebra. Finally we show that consistently all towers on the natural numbers remain towers under this embedding

Covipendium : information available to support the development of medical countermeasures and interventions against COVID-19

The living paper on the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) provides a structured compilation of scientific data about the virus, the disease and its control. Its objective is to help scientists identify the most relevant publications on COVID-19 in the mass of information that appears every day. It is also expected to foster a global understanding of disease control and stimulate transdisciplinary initiatives

MicroRNAs Regulate Ca2+ Homeostasis in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of embryonic stem cell (ESC) biology, and their study has identified key regulatory mechanisms. To find novel pathways regulated by miRNAs in ESCs, we undertook a bioinformatics analysis of gene pathways differently expressed in the absence of miRNAs due to the deletion of Dicer, which encodes an RNase that is essential for the synthesis of miRNAs. One pathway that stood out was Ca2+ signaling. Interestingly, we found that Dicer−/− ESCs had no difference in basal cytoplasmic Ca2+ levels but were hyperresponsive when Ca2+ import into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was blocked by thapsigargin. Remarkably, the increased Ca2+ response to thapsigargin in ESCs resulted in almost no increase in apoptosis and no differences in stress response pathways, despite the importance of miRNAs in the stress response of other cell types. The increased Ca2+ response in Dicer−/− ESCs was also observed during purinergic receptor activation, demonstrating a physiological role for the miRNA regulation of Ca2+ signaling pathways. In examining the mechanism of increased Ca2+ responsiveness to thapsigargin, neither store-operated Ca2+ entry nor Ca2+ clearance mechanisms from the cytoplasm appeared to be involved. Rather, it appeared to involve an increase in the expression of one isoform of the IP3 receptors (Itpr2). miRNA regulation of Itpr2 expression primarily appeared to be indirect, with transcriptional regulation playing a major role. Therefore, the miRNA regulation of Itpr2 expression offers a unique mechanism to regulate Ca2+ signaling pathways in the physiology of pluripotent stem cells

Entinostat as a combinatorial therapeutic for rhabdomyosarcoma.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common childhood soft tissue sarcoma. For the alveolar subtype (ARMS), the presence of the PAX3::FOXO1 fusion gene and/or metastases are strong predictors of poor outcome. Metastatic PAX3::FOXO1+ ARMS often responds to chemotherapies initially, only to subsequently relapse and become resistant with most patients failing to survive beyond 8 years post-diagnosis. No curative intent phase II or phase III clinical trial has been available for patients in the past 10 years (ARST0921). Thus, metastatic ARMS represents a significantly unmet clinical need. Chemotherapy resistance in ARMS has previously been attributed to PAX3::FOXO1-mediated cell cycle checkpoint adaptation, which is mediated by an HDAC3-SMARCA4-miR-27a-PAX3::FOXO1 circuit that can be disrupted by HDAC3 inhibition. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy of combining the epigenetic regulator entinostat, a Class I Histone Deacetylase (HDAC1-3) inhibitor, with RMS-specific chemotherapies in patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of RMS. We identified single agent, additive or synergistic relationships between relapse-specific chemotherapies and clinically relevant drug exposures of entinostat in three PAX3::FOXO1+ ARMS mouse models. This preclinical data provides further rationale for clinical investigation of entinostat, already known to be well tolerated in a pediatric phase I clinical trial (ADVL1513)

Mucin transiently sustains coronavirus infectivity through heterogenous changes in phase morphology of evaporating aerosol

Respiratory pathogens can be spread though the transmission of aerosolised expiratory secretions in the form of droplets or particulates. Understanding the fundamental aerosol parameters that govern how such pathogens survive whilst airborne is essential to understanding and developing methods of restricting their dissemination. Pathogen viability measurements made using Controlled Electrodynamic Levitation and Extraction of Bioaerosol onto Substrate (CELEBS) in tandem with a comparative kinetics electrodynamic balance (CKEDB) measurements allow for a direct comparison between viral viability and evaporation kinetics of the aerosol with a time resolution of seconds. Here, we report the airborne survival of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and determine a comparable loss of infectivity in the aerosol phase to our previous observations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Through the addition of clinically relevant concentrations of mucin to the bioaerosol, there is a transient mitigation of the loss of viral infectivity at 40% RH. Increased concentrations of mucin promoted heterogenous phase change during aerosol evaporation, characterised as the formation of inclusions within the host droplet. This research demonstrates the role of mucus in the aerosol phase and its influence on short-term airborne viral stability