The Association Between Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Reactivation and Alzheimer’s Disease

This review will focus on the interaction of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and its causative role in pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) noting specifically, the epidemiological relevance of addressing this problem, as well as the molecular pathways associated. HSV-1 reactivation tends to be one of the primary causative events that is responsible for many of the pathologies associated with AD, such as: amyloid beta (Aβ) accumulation caused by malfunctioning cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) as well as tau hyperphosphorylation. HSV-1 reactivation is a primary causative event in downstream dysfunction and is also shown to be directed by the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) stress pathway; however, the glycogen synthase kinase type-3 (GSK-3) pathway is most important for Aβ accumulation and is also associated with tau hyperphosphorylation: the two proteins responsible for AD. The purpose of discussing these molecular pathways associated with the connection between HSV-1 and AD is to prove that proactive treatment is a necessity, while also advocating for a more detailed understanding of the causative affects of HSV-1 on AD. This review is important to increase awareness of the association between this highly prevalent virus and an extremely debilitating disease, with the goal of increased understanding and treatment for both HSV-1 and Alzheimer’s disease

Bioenergy and Minigrids for Sustainable Human Development

Human-caused climate change and deep disparities in human development imperil a prosperous and just future for our planet and the people who live on it. Transforming our society to mitigate global warming offers an opportunity to rebuild energy systems to the benefit of those who are harmed by global inequality today. I examine this opportunity through the lens of two sustainable energy technologies: bioenergy and miniature electricity grids (minigrids). Bioenergy requires land to produce biomass and is inextricably connected to the surrounding environment, agricultural livelihoods, and food system. I apply data science tools to study aspects of land use and food security that may intersect with increasing bioenergy production. I assess the potential to use over one billion hectares of grazing land more intensively with an empirical yield gap analysis technique called climate binning. To clarify how agricultural and socioeconomic characteristics relate to national food security, I study the relative importance of several drivers using simple linear regressions with cross validation and random sampling techniques. Minigrids can supply clean, reliable electricity to un- and under-served communities, but small and hard-to-predict customer loads hamper their financial viability. To improve predictions of daily electricity demand of prospective customers, I test a data-driven approach using customer demographic surveys and machine learning models. I also investigate opportunities to grow loads by stimulating income-generating uses of minigrid electricity in twelve Nigerian agricultural value chains. I conclude by emphasizing the fundamental complementarity of energy and agriculture as change levers for human development, especially in rural communities with low energy access and high poverty. I also provide recommendations to support the effective use of energy to solve pressing agricultural problems and drive multiplicative human development benefits

Cover Crops As Tools: How Soil Fungal Communities Can Be Prepared For Successful Prairie Restoration

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have major impact on plant survival, growth and plant community structure. Current land management practices utilize tilled corn-soybean rotations prior to restoration to control exotic weeds. Here, we investigate whether incorporating no-till practices and different cover crop combinations prior to prairie planting provide a more robust prairie restoration. Measuring fungal community changes occurring in old and conventional fields in comparison to a remnant prairie, we found that community composition of all fields was distinct. AMF richness differed among fields, but diversity did not. We will continue to monitor fungal community composition annually, measuring how cover crop treatments change soil biota

The Influence of Chronotype and Grit on Lifestyle and Physical Activity

Background:  The chronotype of a person refers to an individual's natural sleep-wake cycle and whether that individual prefers morning or evening activities, and grit is an individual's perseverance and passion for long-term goals.Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between grit, chronotype, physical activity, and leading a healthy lifestyle in college-age students.Methods:  Health and fitness data (i.e., chronotype, grit, lifestyle assessment score, and daily steps) from 431 first-semester university students at a private college were collected and analyzed. Results: This study found that grit and chronotype both have significant correlations with living a healthy lifestyle and with physical activity. Grit more accurately predicts a person's lifestyle (β = -13.712, r = 0.39, p < 0.0001) while chronotype more accurately predicts the physical activity, or steps, of a person (β = 66.48, r = .19, p = .0001). Chronotype can also accurately predict the grit of a person (r = .25, p < .0001), and it was found that morning people tend to have more grit.Conclusions:  This study concluded that grit, chronotype, steps, and a healthy lifestyle are all significantly correlated with each other. Knowing the relationship between endogenous chronotype, grit, and living a physically active and healthy lifestyle can help inform policy decisions related to the goal of strengthening an institution's inclusive and healthy academic community

The ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence Chatbot: How Well Does It Answer Accounting Assessment Questions?

ChatGPT, a language-learning model chatbot, has garnered considerable attention for its ability to respond to users’ questions. Using data from 14 countries and 186 institutions, we compare ChatGPT and student performance for 28,085 questions from accounting assessments and textbook test banks. As of January 2023, ChatGPT provides correct answers for 56.5 percent of questions and partially correct answers for an additional 9.4 percent of questions. When considering point values for questions, students significantly outperform ChatGPT with a 76.7 percent average on assessments compared to 47.5 percent for ChatGPT if no partial credit is awarded and 56.5 percent if partial credit is awarded. Still, ChatGPT performs better than the student average for 15.8 percent of assessments when we include partial credit. We provide evidence of how ChatGPT performs on different question types, accounting topics, class levels, open/closed assessments, and test bank questions. We also discuss implications for accounting education and research

Who wrote the rules for the Trans-Pacific Partnership?

Twelve governments recently signed the much-anticipated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), sparking heated debate about its merits. As a primary motivation for this first “mega-regional” agreement, US President Barack Obama argues that the TPP is a way for the USA, and not China or someone else, to write the global trade rules of the future. This begs some important questions, namely which country or countries really did write most of the TPP and thus whose agenda for 21st century trade might it advance? To answer these questions, we compare the recently-released text of the TPP to the language in the 74 previous trade agreements that TPP members signed since 1995. Our text-as-data analyses reveal that the contents of the TPP are taken disproportionately from earlier US trade agreements. The ten preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that most closely match the TPP are all US PTAs. Moreover, the contents of controversial chapters, such as the one on investment, are drawn even more heavily from past US treaty language. Our study and findings apply power-based accounts of international institutions to a landmark new agreement, and portray a more active, template-based process of international diffusion

Is the European Union Trade Deal with Canada New or Recycled? A Text-as-data Approach

Are the rules in the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) largely copied from past trade agreements, or are they new and potentially groundbreaking? Some critics charge that CETA merely replicates the failures of past trade deals, while others worry that CETA is specifying new ‘behind the border’ rules that threaten state sovereignty. Using text analysis we compare the contents in CETA to those in previous trade agreements signed by both parties. Unlike many other recent trade deals, we find that much of the content in CETA is indeed novel. On average only about 7 per cent of CETA language is copied directly from any of the 49 previous trade agreements we analyze. This same pattern holds across many of the most controversial issue areas, like investment. Some recent agreements like EU-Singapore (30%) and Canada-South Korea (24%) are replicated in part in CETA, although recycled text is more likely to come from past Canadian PTAs than EU ones. Our results suggest that fears that CETA is ‘more of the same’ are overblown and indicate that if ratified CETA likely will play an important role as a model in future trade agreements

The Ties between the World Trade Organization and Preferential Trade Agreements: A Textual Analysis

Although many believe preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are incompatible with the World Trade Organization (WTO), we lack empirical evidence on this topic. In this article, we examine international trade agreements—the source of trade law—and employ two types of text analysis to determine the presence of the WTO in PTAs. Our systematic comparisons of post-Uruguay Round PTAs and relevant WTO agreements reveal a strong, two-part presence of the WTO in PTAs. Nearly all recent PTAs reference the WTO explicitly, often dozens of times across multiple chapters. Likewise, in many of these same PTAs we find that substantial portions of treaty language—sometime the majority of a chapter—is copied verbatim from a WTO agreement. Moreover, multiple regression analyses reveal that larger countries and those most active in preferential agreement making are actually most likely to include a strong WTO presence in their PTAs. Additionally, the presence of the WTO in PTAs has increased over time. Our study contributes novel and robust empirical evidence to suggest that the ties between the WTO and PTAs are more solid than is realized