On the freeness of anticyclotomic selmer groups of modular forms

We establish the freeness of certain anticyclotomic Selmer groups of modular forms. The freeness of these Selmer groups plays a key role in the Euler system arguments introduced by Bertolini and Darmon in their work on the anticyclotomic main conjecture for modular forms. In particular, our result fills some implicit gaps which appeared in generalizations of the Bertolini-Darmon result to the case where the associated residual representation is not minimally ramified. The removal of such a minimal ramification hypothesis is essential for applications involving congruences of modular forms.Accepted manuscrip

Sleepwriting

Sleepwriting began during one of those get-to-know-you icebreaker activities that tend to occur at the start of each new semester. The question was "tell us one strange thing about yourself' -one young man's answer caught my imagination immediately: "sometimes I write in my sleep." This embryonic idea grew and grew over the course of 18 months, finally reaching critical mass and spilling from my brain onto the page. Initially conceived as a full-length feature screenplay, a choice was eventually made to trim it down to a I-hour TV pilot. This format -a "dramedy" of the kind found on HBO or Showtime -allowed for the deeper character development and slower pace required to tell this particular story. This first episode ends on a cliffhanger, tempting the viewer to tune in next week ...Thesis (B.?.)Honors Colleg

Killebrew v. Donohue [State of Nevada], 139 Nev. Adv. Op. 43 (Sept. 28, 2023)

Legislative action in 2017 allowed the State Land Registrar (Registrar) to increase usage fees for piers and buoys in Nevada waters to reflect fair market prices and fees in comparable areas. Subsequently, the Registrar issued regulation NAC 322.190, which increased the rates by 1400%. This administrative action was challenged by Lake Tahoe property owners under NRS 233B.110 as invalid for being outside of the scope of statutory authority allotted to the Registrar. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the Registrar holding that because the regulation did not violate any constitutional or statutory authority given to Registrar, it was valid. In affirming the decision, the Nevada Supreme Court also clarified that arbitrary and capricious review does not apply when assessing the validity of a regulation

Smoky Wine Variety: How Federal Crop Insurance Hinders Grape Growers Affected by Wildfire Smoke

This Note comparatively argues that while both Californian and Australian grape growers lose millions of dollars from crops damaged by wildfire smoke taint, the two countries support and insure their farmers very differently. When both areas of the world are susceptible to the damaging effects of climate change, why are the producers not susceptible to the same type of crop relief? After a careful analysis of the types of insurance the United States and Australian governments offer grape growers, the inequity stands between the systematic approach to insuring citizens against wildfires. In America, federal crop insurance only protects crops touched by the flames of wildfires, whereas, in Australia, the government recognizes the consequential effects of wildfires—smoke taint—and provides relief to their farmers for those crops damaged by smoke. The United States will fall behind the world in the wine industry, and more importantly, the billion-dollar viticulture industry in California will cease to exist, and millions of Americans will lose their jobs, homes, and hope without the support of the federal government. Thus, the United States must reevaluate the long-standing federal crop insurance policies and emulate those policies in Australia so that grape growers may feel overdue relief

Nanoindentation Techniques for the Evaluation of Silicon Nitride Thin Films

Silicon nitride thin films are of interest in the biomedical engineering field due to their biocompatibility and favorable tribological properties. Evaluation and understanding of the properties of these films under diverse loading and failure conditions is a necessary prerequisite to their use in biomedical devices. Three wafers of silicon nitride-coated silicon were obtained from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and used to create 96 samples. Samples were subjected to nanoindentation testing to evaluate the mechanical properties of the film. Samples were subjected to nanoimpact testing to compare the damage resistance of the film to separate nanoimpact types. Samples were subjected to nanoscratch testing to evaluate the consistency of the critical load of the film. Results showed that there were no significant differences in the mechanical properties of the film across the tested groups. There was a significant difference observed in the rate of damage to the film between pendulum oscillation nanoimpact testing and sample oscillation nanoimpact testing, with the former causing more damage with all experiment variables controlled for. Results showed that the critical load measure for the film was significantly different between different nanoscratch test parameters. The conclusions from this study will support future work for in vitro and in vivo testing of ceramic thin films for biomedical applications

POWER RESIDUES OF FOURIER COEFFICIENTS OF ELLIPTIC CURVES WITH COMPLEX MULTIPLICATION

Fix m greater than one and let E be an elliptic curve over Q with complex multiplication. We formulate conjectures on the density of primes p (congruent to one modulo m) for which the pth Fourier coefficient of E is an mth power modulo p; often these densities differ from the naive expectation of 1/m. We also prove our conjectures for m dividing the number of roots of unity lying in the CM field of E; the most involved case is m = 4 and complex multiplication by Q(i)

Synergistic action of dual IGF1/R and MEK inhibition sensitizes childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells to cytotoxic agents and involves downregulation of STAT6 and PDAP1.

Heterogeneous upregulation of multiple prosurvival pathways underlies resistance to damage-induced apoptosis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells despite normal p53 responses. Here, we show that the dual combination of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1)/IGF1 receptor (IGF1/R) and mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) kinase (MEK) inhibition using AG1024 + U0126 can sensitize apoptosis-resistant ALL cells to ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage irrespective of effect of single pathway inhibition in vitro. This AG1024 + U0126 combination also significantly potentiates the ability of the core chemotherapy compounds vincristine, dexamethasone, and daunorubicin to kill ALL cells in vitro. Evidence of the synergistic action of AG1024 + U0126 in samples with variable basal levels of phosphorylated IGF1/Rβ and ERK1/2 suggested additional targets of this drug combination. Consistent with this, gene expression profiling identified 32 "synergy genes" differentially targeted by IGF1/R + MEK inhibition and, among these, Signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) and platelet-derived growth factor-associated protein 1 (PDAP1) were the most differentially downregulated cluster. Pearson correlation analyses revealed that STAT6 and PDAP1 display significant expression codependency and a common expression pattern linked with other key "synergy" genes, supporting their predicted role in an STAT6-ERK-nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-κB) network. Knockdown studies revealed that loss of STAT6, but not PDAP1, impinges on the cell cycle, causing reduced numbers of viable cells. In combination with daunorubicin, STAT6 loss has an additive effect on cell killing, whereas PDAP1 loss is synergistic, indicating an important role of PDAP1 in the cellular response to this anthracycline. Inhibition of STAT6 or PDAP1 may therefore represent a potential novel therapeutic strategy for resistant ALL by enhancing sensitivity to chemotherapy

Differential negative reinforcement of other behavior to increase compliance with wearing an anti-strip suit

Using a changing-criterion design, we replicated and extended a study (Cook, Rapp, & Schulze, 2015) on differential negative reinforcement of other behavior (DNRO). More specifically, educational assistants implemented DNRO to teach a 12-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder to comply with wearing an anti-strip suit to prevent inappropriate fecal behavior in a school setting. The duration for which the participant wore the suit systematically increased from 2 s at the start of treatment to the entire duration of the school day at the termination of the study. Moreover, these effects were generalized to a new school with novel staff and persisted for more than a year. These findings replicate prior research on DNRO and further support the use of the intervention to increase compliance with wearing protective items, or medical devices, in practical settings

Active repression by unliganded retinoid receptors in development: less is sometimes more

The retinoid receptors have major roles throughout development, even in the absence of ligand. Here, we summarize an emerging theme whereby gene repression, mediated by unliganded retinoid receptors, can dictate cell fate. In addition to activating transcription, retinoid receptors actively repress gene transcription by recruiting cofactors that promote chromatin compaction. Two developmental processes for which gene silencing by the retinoid receptors is essential are head formation in Xenopus and skeletal development in the mouse. Inappropriate repression, by oncogenic retinoic acid (RA)* receptor (RAR) fusion proteins, blocks myeloid differentiation leading to a rare form of leukemia. Our current understanding of the developmental role of retinoid repression and future perspectives in this field are discussed