Cancel Culture on Twitter: The Effects of Information Source and Messaging on Post Shareability and Perceptions of Corporate Greenwashing

This paper is a mixed-method study divided into three parts. Part I provides an overview of the current literature on corporate greenwashing, social media marketing and the intersection of the two. The section concludes by developing a theoretical model and testable hypotheses that aim to explain how individuals might process tweets as it pertains to environmental messaging from external third-party commentators. Part II empirically tests the hypotheses through a 2x2 between-participants survey experiment (n=200) to measure the effects of information source (author of the tweet) and post message (positive versus negative) on two dependent variable constructs: post shareability and environmental authenticity. The empirical study finds that (1) positive posts have a higher likelihood of being liked/shared than negative posts, (2) that third-party commentary from more credible information sources are ranked more favourably in environmental authenticity for both positive and negative conditions compared to less credible information sources, and (3) that the credibility of an information source does not have a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of a post being shared or liked. Part III aims to provide colour into potential behavioural mechanisms behind the causal relationships tested in Part II. Part III is exploratory in nature and uses a series of qualitative in-depth individual case studies (n=10) to propose a set of future research questions that would develop a more nuanced understanding to complement the empirical findings

Green but Colour Blind: Environmental Racism in Canada and the Unintended Consequences of Electric Vehicle (EV) Incentives on Socioeconomic and Racial Inequality

Inequality and climate change are some of the most pressing issues facing society today. This paper begins by providing brief documentation on the current state of environmental justice (EJ) and racism research as well as detailing cases of environmental racism in Canada. This paper then aims to contribute to EJ literature by arguing that even in the absence of malicious intent, disproportionate access to non-essential environmental benefits is an EJ issue. This paper applies this understanding of EJ and environmental racism to electric vehicle (EV) point-of-purchase rebates in Canada to showcase the ways in which such policies are inefficient from an economic standpoint, and counterproductive from an anti-racism perspective. This paper then offers alternatives to incentivizing EV purchases among lower-income and black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities. We conclude by calling on policymakers to better undertake due diligence to understand how policies can unintentionally perpetuate systemic racial and socioeconomic inequality

Recent advances in our understanding of the structure and function of more unusual cation channels.

As their name implies, cation channels allow the regulated flow of cations such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium across cellular and intracellular membranes. Cation channels have long been known for their fundamental roles in controlling membrane potential and excitability in neurons and muscle. In this review, we provide an update on the recent advances in our understanding of the structure-function relationship and the physiological and pathophysiological role of cation channels. The most exciting developments in the last two years, in our opinion, have been the insights that cryoelectron microscopy has provided into the inner life and the gating of not only voltage-gated channels but also mechanosensitive and calcium- or sodium-activated channels. The mechanosensitive Piezo channels especially have delighted the field not only with a fascinating new type of structure but with important roles in blood pressure regulation and lung function

SPR-5; MET-2 maternal reprogramming cooperates with the Dream Complex to regulate developmental cell fates

Histone methylation is a post-transcriptional modification to the N-terminal tails of histone core proteins that regulates DNA accessibility, and consequently, gene expression. Like DNA, histone methylation can be inherited between generations, and is highly regulated during embryonic development. At fertilization, histone methylation must undergo maternal reprogramming to reset the epigenetic landscape in the new zygote. During maternal reprogramming of histone methylation in the nematode, C. elegans, H3K4me (a modification associated with active transcription) is removed by the H3K4 demethylase, SPR-5, and H3K9me (a modification associated with transcriptional repression) is subsequently added by the histone methyltransferase, MET-2. Recently, it was demonstrated that SPR-5; MET-2 maternal reprogramming antagonizes the H3K36 methyltransferase, MES-4, which maintains a transcriptional memory of a subset of germline genes between generations. Maternal loss of SPR-5 and MET-2 results in ectopic expression of MES-4 germline genes in somatic tissues and a severe developmental delay. Recently, exciting new literature suggest that the DREAM Complex, a transcriptional repressor complex that regulates cell cycle, also represses MES-4 germline genes in somatic tissues suggesting that the DREAM Complex and SPR-5; MET-2 maternal reprogramming may work together to prevent ectopic germline gene expression in somatic tissues and developmental delay. To test this hypothesis, we knocked down Dream Complex members LIN-35 and LIN-9 in spr-5; met-2 mutants using RNA interference (RNAi). We found that loss of either LIN-35 or LIN-9 exacerbates the severe developmental delay that we normally observe in spr-5; met-2 mutants leading to a complete larval arrest. These findings suggest that the Dream Complex and SPR-5; MET-2 maternal reprogramming work together to ensure proper development and provide insight into how an evolutionary conserved transcriptional repressor complex cooperates with maternal reprogramming of histone methylation to regulate germline versus somatic cell fates

Renal Artery Stenosis as a Cause of Acute Kidney Injury in a Post-kidney Transplant Patient

Introduction: The most common complication of kidney transplantation is allograft dysfunction, which can present as acute kidney injury (AKI). Here, we report a case of transplant renal artery stenosis (TRAS) presenting with acute elevation in creatinine in concomitant with resistant hypertension. Case Presentation: A 69-year-old African American male with history of end stage renal disease status post living unrelated kidney transplant presented for evaluation of worsening kidney function. Past medical history included hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, coronary artery disease. Physical exam was significant for blood pressure 164/85, bilateral crackles, lower extremities edema. Blood work showed creatinine 3..8 mg/dL (up from base line 2 mg/dL), BUN 69 mg/dL. Doppler Ultrasound of transplant kidney showed anastomotic luminal stenosis. His hypertension remained refractory to multiple antihypertensive medications. Patient underwent renal artery angiogram with primary stenting of transplanted renal artery. The creatinine improved to 3.4 mg/dL. His blood pressures were also under-controlled with oral medications. Patient was discharged with creatinine of 3.3 mg/dL and improved to 3.1 mg/dL at his 1-week follow-up with transplant specialist. Discussion: Common causes of allograft dysfunction include acute tubular necrosis, acute rejection, infection, urinary obstruction. TRAS is a less common cause but should be suspected among patients with concomitant hypertension. Renal arteriography with potential angioplasty and stenting is gold-standard diagnosis and treatment of choice for TRAS. However, this procedure involves IV contrast, which can potentially worsen kidney function. Therefore, risk and benefit of pursuing work-up for TRAS should be considered carefully and always start with non-invasive alternatives

ReShader: View-Dependent Highlights for Single Image View-Synthesis

In recent years, novel view synthesis from a single image has seen significant progress thanks to the rapid advancements in 3D scene representation and image inpainting techniques. While the current approaches are able to synthesize geometrically consistent novel views, they often do not handle the view-dependent effects properly. Specifically, the highlights in their synthesized images usually appear to be glued to the surfaces, making the novel views unrealistic. To address this major problem, we make a key observation that the process of synthesizing novel views requires changing the shading of the pixels based on the novel camera, and moving them to appropriate locations. Therefore, we propose to split the view synthesis process into two independent tasks of pixel reshading and relocation. During the reshading process, we take the single image as the input and adjust its shading based on the novel camera. This reshaded image is then used as the input to an existing view synthesis method to relocate the pixels and produce the final novel view image. We propose to use a neural network to perform reshading and generate a large set of synthetic input-reshaded pairs to train our network. We demonstrate that our approach produces plausible novel view images with realistic moving highlights on a variety of real world scenes.Comment: SIGGRAPH Asia 2023. Project page at https://people.engr.tamu.edu/nimak/Papers/SIGAsia2023_Reshader/index.html and video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW-tl48D3O

Single Event Effects Testing For Low Earth Orbit Missions with Neutrons

Neutrons can effectively be used to screen electronic parts intended to be used in Low Earth Orbit. This paper compares neutron with proton environments in spacecraft and discusses recent comparison testing

BayesSPsurv: An R Package to Estimate Bayesian (Spatial) Split-Population Survival Models

Survival data often include a fraction of units that are susceptible to an event of interest as well as a fraction of “immune” units. In many applications, spatial clustering in unobserved risk factors across nearby units can also affect their survival rates and odds of becoming immune. To address these methodological challenges, this article introduces our BayesSPsurv R-package, which fits parametric Bayesian Spatial split-population survival (cure) models that can account for spatial autocorrelation in both subpopulations of the user \u27s time-to-event data. Spatial autocorrelation is modeled with spatially weighted frailties, which are estimated using a conditionally autoregressive prior. The user can also fit parametric cure models with or without nonspatial i.i.d. frailties, and each model can incorporate time-varying covariates. BayesSPsurv also includes various functions to conduct pre-estimation spatial autocorrelation tests, visualize results, and assess model performance, all of which are illustrated using data on post-civil war peace survival

Fire safe structural steel: a design guide

In 1974, the Constructional Steel Research and Development Organization (CONSTRADO) of England commissioned Ove Amp & Partners to prepare a detailed technical report setting out the most plausible models of flame projection from openings in building facades and the methods of calculating heat transfer from fires to exterior exposed steel columns. The report and an accompanying calculation method were completed in November 1975. In July 1975, the Subcommittee on Fire Teclmology of the Committee on Construction Codes and Standards of American Iron and Steel Institute commissioned a revised major extension of Ove Amp\u27s work, and a two-volume report was completed in January 1977. This GUIDE, edited and arranged for ready reference by building professionals, is a condensed version of the 1977 report. It presents step-by-step discussions, analyses, and procedures for designing fire-safe exterior structural steel