COVID Susceptibility and Severity Correlation with the ACE2 Gene

A wide spectrum of susceptibility and severity of infection has been observed among COVID-19 patients. While some individuals remain unaffected by the Sars-Cov-2 virus, others have contracted the virus multiple times with varying levels of severity. This poster reviews some of the research demonstrating a link between the susceptibility of the Sars-Cov- 2 virus and the severity of infection, and a specific gene called ACE2. The ACE2 gene encodes an angiotensin-converting enzyme that acts as a functional receptor for the spike glycoprotein receptor binding domain of the coronavirus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses. ACE2 presents numerous amino acid variants with different functions and catalytic properties. The Sars-Cov-2 virus utilizes the ACE2 gene as a host receptor to infect its human host through three amino acid (AA) residues (T20, Y83, and K353) near the interface. Recent single-cell RNA sequencing has found organ- and cell-specific expression of the converting enzyme in the lungs and alveolar tissue, explaining why infection typically includes respiratory symptoms. It is hypothesized that expression levels from the ACE2 gene may affect an individual’s susceptibility to the virus and the severity of the infection. Awareness of genetic predisposition factors can contribute to evidence-based risk assessment which could allow for future individualized treatments and preventative measures

Appalachian Farmers: Building Value from Values

This trio of authors has presented a microcosm of values-based shared business practices, involving local food production and distribution in a small, rural Appalachian region in the United States. They focus upon the collective activities of a group committed to advancing local business practices while eliminating unnecessary transportation costs, boosting the region’s economic infrastructure, and most importantly, bringing people together to share experiences and pass along knowledge designed to benefit their communities and generate a sustainable agricultural-based economy

Enhanced detectability of community structure in multilayer networks through layer aggregation

Many systems are naturally represented by a multilayer network in which edges exist in multiple layers that encode different, but potentially related, types of interactions, and it is important to understand limitations on the detectability of community structure in these networks. Using random matrix theory, we analyze detectability limitations for multilayer (specifically, multiplex) stochastic block models (SBMs) in which L layers are derived from a common SBM. We study the effect of layer aggregation on detectability for several aggregation methods, including summation of the layers' adjacency matrices for which we show the detectability limit vanishes as O(L^{-1/2}) with increasing number of layers, L. Importantly, we find a similar scaling behavior when the summation is thresholded at an optimal value, providing insight into the common - but not well understood - practice of thresholding pairwise-interaction data to obtain sparse network representations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Juror attitudes and biases in sexual assault cases

Sexual assault has among the highest rates of acquittal and lowest rates of proven guilt compared with other offences. Given that more than 70 percent of sexual assault incidents are not reported to police and only about one in 10 reported incidents results in a guilty finding, increasing conviction rates for sexual assault is a key issue for the criminal justice system. This paper presents findings from two recent studies conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology. These show that juror judgements in rape trials are influenced more by the attitudes, beliefs and biases about rape which jurors bring with them into the courtroom than by the objective facts presented, and that stereotypical beliefs about rape and victims of it still exist within the community. As jurors are members of the community and are randomly drawn in order to be representative of it, the two studies together indicate that successful prosecutions of sexual assault will remain low until we acknowledge that jurors interpret what they see in light of their own beliefs, experience and expectations. We need to know what these belief structures are and how they directly impact upon judgements in rape trials, if conviction rates are to improve

Incivility in the Workplace: The Experiences of Female Sport Management Faculty in Higher Education

Access to higher education for women has dramatically increased in the United States during the past 50 years. Female college graduates have reversed the figures and gone from being outnumbered by their male counterparts 3 to 2 in the 1970s, to now outnumbering male college graduates 3 to 2. Women also graduate from masters and doctoral programs at a higher rate than men. However, increases in the number of women obtaining college and advanced degrees has not translated to comparable representation in faculty positions or leadership roles in higher education. This lack of women in leadership positions, as well as perceived discrimination against female faculty, may be even more of a concern in sport management programs. Sport is considered a male domain, and women are often seen as intruders in this realm. The purpose of this study was to examine the manifestation of incivility from colleagues and superiors experienced within a sample of female sport management faculty members utilizing social identity theory as a guiding framework. Incivility was conceptualized for the current study as deviant behavior that is not necessarily intended to physically harm the target (e.g., belittling others, showing disdain to someone while they are talking, engaging in outside tasks during meetings)

Towards evidence-based tax administration

An evidence-based approach is being promoted and adopted in many public service areas, but tax authorities have so far only sporadically subscribed to it. We, first, present arguments for an evidence-based approach to tax administration and outline its main features. Second, studies on the effects of tax-reporting schedules are considered to illustrate the logic, potential challenges and outcomes of such an approach. Third, we discuss the main principles of an evidence-based approach, as well as its practical and political obstacles in the context of taxation. An evidence-based approach means basing administrative practices and strategies on an understanding of relevant processes that is obtained from systematic, theory-driven and cumulative research, using various appropriate methodologies including experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs. However, an evidence-based approach needs to consider the challenges posed by short-term orientation and risk-averse defensive postures that result from political agendas, public media scrutiny and intraorganisational dynamics