Evaluating a VR System for Collecting Safety-Critical Vehicle-Pedestrian Interactions

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) require comprehensive and reliable pedestrian trajectory data to ensure safe operation. However, obtaining data of safety-critical scenarios such as jaywalking and near-collisions, or uncommon agents such as children, disabled pedestrians, and vulnerable road users poses logistical and ethical challenges. This paper evaluates a Virtual Reality (VR) system designed to collect pedestrian trajectory and body pose data in a controlled, low-risk environment. We substantiate the usefulness of such a system through semi-structured interviews with professionals in the AV field, and validate the effectiveness of the system through two empirical studies: a first-person user evaluation involving 62 participants, and a third-person evaluative survey involving 290 respondents. Our findings demonstrate that the VR-based data collection system elicits realistic responses for capturing pedestrian data in safety-critical or uncommon vehicle-pedestrian interaction scenarios.Comment: In submission to CHI 202

A national examination of discrimination, resilience, and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: the All of Us Research Program

ObjectiveTo examine the impact of resilience on the association between discrimination and trajectories of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic across racial and ethnic groups.MethodsData were drawn from 5 waves of the All of Us Research Program’s survey on the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of American adults. Linear mixed-effects models were fitted to assess the association between discrimination exposure throughout the pandemic and depressive symptoms over time. An interaction term was introduced between resilience and discrimination exposure to assess if resilience buffered the association between discrimination and depressive symptoms over time. Race-stratified linear mixed-effects models examined racial/ethnic differences in the association between resilience, discrimination, and depressive symptoms over time.ResultsFifty-one thousand nine hundred fifty-eight participants completed surveys between May and December of 2020. Results indicated that exposure to more discrimination was associated with increasing trajectories of depressive symptoms over time (b = 0.48, p < 0.001). However, resilience moderated the association between discrimination and well-being over time such that higher resilience mitigated the detrimental effect of experiencing discrimination on depressive symptoms across time (b = −0.02, p < 0.001).ConclusionIdentifying protective features such as resilience can promote the development of culturally tailored interventions to address mental health in the context of discrimination

Prevalence and Types of Drugs Used Among Hepatitis A Patients During Outbreaks Associated with Person-to-Person Transmission, Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia, 2016–2019

Background: People who use drugs are at increased risk for hepatitis A virus infection. Since 1996, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended hepatitis A vaccination for people who use drugs. Since 2016, the U.S. has experienced widespread hepatitis A outbreaks associated with person-to-person transmission. Purpose: To describe the prevalence of drug use, route of use, and drugs used among hepatitis A outbreak-associated patients. Methods: State outbreak and medical records were reviewed to describe the prevalence, type, and route of drug use among a random sample of 812 adult outbreak-associated hepatitis A patients from Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia during 2016–2019. Differences in drug-use status were analyzed by demographic and risk-factor characteristics using the χ2 test. Results: Among all patients, residents of Kentucky (55.6%), Michigan (51.1%), and West Virginia (60.1%) reported any drug use, respectively. Among patients that reported any drug use, methamphetamine was the most frequently reported drug used in Kentucky (42.3%) and West Virginia (42.1%); however, opioids were the most frequently reported drug used in Michigan (46.8%). Hepatitis A patients with documented drug use were more likely (p\u3c0.05) to be experiencing homelessness/unstable housing, have been currently or recently incarcerated, and be aged 18–39 years compared to those patients without documented drug use. Implications: Drug use was prevalent among person-to-person hepatitis A outbreak-associated patients, and more likely among younger patients and patients experiencing homelessness or incarceration. Increased hepatitis A vaccination coverage is critical to prevent similar outbreaks in the future

Transient Responses to NOTCH and TLX1/HOX11 Inhibition in T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia/Lymphoma

To improve the treatment strategies of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (T-ALL), further efforts are needed to identify therapeutic targets. Dysregulated expression of HOX-type transcription factors occurs in 30–40% of cases of T-ALL. TLX1/HOX11 is the prototypical HOX-type transcription factor. TLX1 may be an attractive therapeutic target because mice that are deficient in TLX1 are healthy. To test this possibility, we developed a conditional doxycycline-regulated mouse model of TLX1-initiated T-ALL. TLX1 induced T-ALL after ∼5–7 months with penetrance of 15–60%. Similar to human TLX1-type T-ALLs, the TLX1-induced tumors were arrested at the cortical stage of T-cell development and acquired activating NOTCH1 mutations. Inhibition of NOTCH signaling abrogated growth of cell lines derived from the TLX1-induced tumors. NOTCH inhibition also transiently delayed leukemia progression in vivo. Suppression of TLX1 expression slowed the growth of TLX1 tumor cell lines. Suppression of TLX1 in vivo also transiently delayed leukemia progression. We have shown that TLX1 functions as a T-cell oncogene that is active during both the induction and the maintenance phases of leukemia. However, the effect of suppressing NOTCH or TLX1 was transient. The tumors eventually “escaped” from inhibition. These data imply that the biological pathways and gene sets impacted by TLX1 and NOTCH have largely lost their importance in the fully established tumor. They have been supplanted by stronger oncogenic pathways. Although TLX1 or NOTCH inhibitors may not be effective as single agents, they may still contribute to combination therapy for TLX1-driven acute leukemia

A laboratory-scale annular continuous flow reactor for UV photochemistry using excimer lamps for discrete wavelength excitation and its use in a wavelength study of a photodecarboxlyative cyclisation

This paper describes a new annular reactor for continuous UV photochemistry, which uses easily interchangeable excimer lamps of different wavelengths. The reactor has narrow clearance to form thin films of material for efficient irradiation of molecules. Its use is demonstrated by investigating the effect of discrete wavelength lamps (222, 282 and 308 nm) on the reaction of potassium N-phthalimidobutanoate 1. The ability of the reactor to be integrated into multistep processes is illustrated by combining it with an Amberlyst scavenger and a solid acid catalyst, NbOPO4, to access a second product 3 that is obtained in a single telescoped process. The tricyclic scaffold in 3 is a motif found in several biologically active compounds and has possibilities as a synthon for new pharmaceutical products

Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Apoptosis in Cumulus Cells of Type I Diabetic Mice

Impaired oocyte quality has been demonstrated in diabetic mice; however, the potential pathways by which maternal diabetes exerts its effects on the oocyte are poorly understood. Cumulus cells are in direct contact with the oocyte via gap junctions and provide essential nutrients to support oocyte development. In this study, we investigated the effects of maternal diabetes on the mitochondrial status in cumulus cells. We found an increased frequency of fragmented mitochondria, a decreased transmembrane potential and an aggregated distribution of mitochondria in cumulus cells from diabetic mice. Furthermore, while mitochondrial biogenesis in cumulus cells was induced by maternal diabetes, their metabolic function was disrupted as evidenced by lower ATP and citrate levels. Moreover, we present evidence suggesting that the mitochondrial impairments induced by maternal diabetes, at least in part, lead to cumulus cell apoptosis through the release of cytochrome c. Together the deleterious effects on cumulus cells may disrupt trophic and signaling interactions with the oocyte, contributing to oocyte incompetence and thus poor pregnancy outcomes in diabetic females

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe