Effects of investments in water resources on regional income and employment

The object of this study was to examine the effects of invest-ments in water resources on regional income and employment. To attain this end, two hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis was that investments in water resources had a favorable impact on income and employment in the immediate areas in which the investments were made. The second hypothesis was that investments in water resources had an impact on income and employment but that the spatial nature of that impact might be diffused and irregular in pattern due to the influence of markets and other institutions. In testing the hypotheses, data on income, employment and edu-cation were gathered for 125 counties in the Tennessee River Watershed Region. Variables included in these data were Per Capita Income, Total Income, Total Employment, Capital Invested in Manufacturing, TVA Invest-ments, and percentages of population in four income and educational categories. These variables were analyzed by regression analyses, the calculation of beta-coefficients, by discriminant analysis for two groups and t-tests in seven programs (six of which were recorded in the study). The analytical models were applied to different combinations of the basic data in two categories of counties in each program. The counties were categorized as either directly impacted by water resource projects or not directly impacted by water resource projects. In all programs the directly impacted counties generally shared a common geographic element in that they were located either near water resource projects or in close proximity to rivers on which water projects were located. Several implications were drawn from the analysis of the programs. The analyses implied that residents in counties in close proximity to water resource investment projects enjoyed a greater per capita income in the long rim than did residents in counties not near similar projects. The analyses also implied that investments in water resources were in the long run associated with increases in employment in counties re-moved from the site of investments and decreases in employment in counties near the investments. The analyses further implied that in-vestments in water resources were not associated with an increase in the standard of living for people in the low income and educational groups living near the areas where investments were made as compared to people in the same categories living in areas removed from the sites of investments. In considering the implications of the analyses of the study as related to the hypothesis tested, the first hypothesis would appear subject to question. The second hypothesis would tend to be favored. The analyses did not reveal a definite pattern of counties in which income and employment standards might be related geographically to water resource projects funded by public investments. The only justi-fied conclusion of this study might, therefore, be expressed in the form of a hypothesis that the major effects of investments in water resources on regional income and employment were indeed regional and not confined to isolated areas

Extramedullary plasmacytoma of the uterine cervix arising in an asymptomatic 46-year-old female

An extramedullary plasmacytoma is a rare type of plasma cell tumour that can be found in soft tissues throughout the body. The most common location for an extramedullary plasmacytoma is in the head and neck region. Few case reports have previously documented patients with an extramedullary plasmacytoma within the female genital tract. We report a case of a healthy and asymptomatic 46-year-old female who presented to Colposcopy Clinic with a finding of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion seen on a routine Pap smear. She was found to have a cervical polyp that was excised. Pathology revealed diffuse sheets of atypical plasma cells with lambda light chain restriction. She was referred to Hematology for extensive work-up as the pathology finding was concerning for a plasma cell neoplasm. Staging investigations, including bone marrow biopsy, skeletal survey, whole body PET-CT scan, serum protein electrophoresis, and serum free light chain testing, were all negative. Surgical resection with a hysterectomy was recommended as the most appropriate course of management. The treatment approach is consistent with guidelines outlined in the literature, whereby extramedullary plasmacytomas, which arise outside of the head and neck region and have clear margins, should undergo surgical resection. Extramedullary plasmacytomas carry a risk of progressing to systemic disease, such as multiple myeloma, making it crucial that these patients be followed with routine surveillance to achieve the most optimal long term survival outcome

Learning Cyber Defence Tactics from Scratch with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Recent advancements in deep learning techniques have opened new possibilities for designing solutions for autonomous cyber defence. Teams of intelligent agents in computer network defence roles may reveal promising avenues to safeguard cyber and kinetic assets. In a simulated game environment, agents are evaluated on their ability to jointly mitigate attacker activity in host-based defence scenarios. Defender systems are evaluated against heuristic attackers with the goals of compromising network confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Value-based Independent Learning and Centralized Training Decentralized Execution (CTDE) cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) methods are compared revealing that both approaches outperform a simple multi-agent heuristic defender. This work demonstrates the ability of cooperative MARL to learn effective cyber defence tactics against varied threats.Comment: Presented at 2nd International Workshop on Adaptive Cyber Defense, 2023 (arXiv:2308.09520

Implications of the changing input mix on selected type-of-farming situations

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1966 W5

Ser727-dependent transcriptional activation by association of p300 with STAT3 upon IL-6 stimulation

AbstractActivation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in response to interleukin-6 (IL-6) type cytokines involves both phosphorylation of Tyr705, which enables dimerization, nuclear translocation and DNA binding, as well as ser727 phosphorylation. Here, we describe that the 65 C-terminal amino acids of STAT3 can function as an independent transcription activation domain (TAD), particularly when a negative charge is introduced at position 727 by mutation of the serine residue into aspartate. The strong transcriptional activity of the C-terminal STAT3 Ser727Asp TAD is coupled to a constitutive association with the co-activator p300. In HepG2 cells, p300 associates with STAT3 upon IL-6 stimulation, and overexpression of p300 enhances the transcriptional activity of STAT3α, but not of STAT3β or STAT3 Ser727Ala. We conclude that Ser727 phosphorylation in the C-terminal region of STAT3 is required for transactivation by association with p300

Factors controlling bed and bank erosion in the Illgraben (CH)

Debris flows can grow greatly in size and hazardous potential by eroding bed and bank materials. However, erosion mechanisms are poorly understood because debris flows are complex hybrids between a fluid flow and a moving mass of colliding particles, bed erodibility varies between events, and field measurements are hard to obtain. Here, we (i) quantify the spatio-temporal patterns of erosion and deposition and (ii) identify the key controls on debris-flow erosion in the Illgraben (CH). We use a dataset that combines information on flow properties, antecedent rainfall, and bed and bank erosion for 13 debris flows that occurred between 2019 and 2021. We show that spatio-temporal patterns of erosion and deposition in natural debris-flow torrents can be highly variable and dynamic, and we identify a memory effect where erosion is strong at locations of strong deposition during previous flows and vice versa. We find that flow conditions and antecedent rainfall (affecting bed wetness) jointly control debris-flow erosion. We find statistically significant correlations between channel erosion/deposition and a wide range of flow conditions, including frontal flow depth, velocity, and discharge, and flow volume, cumulative shear stress and seismic energy, as well as antecedent rainfall. Overall, flow conditions describing the cumulative forces exerted at the bed during an event, such as cumulative shear stress and flow volume, best explain erosion. A shear-stress approach accounting for bed erodibility may therefore be applicable for modelling and predicting debris-flow erosion. This work can provide input for model development by identifying correlations of flow and bed conditions with erosion that models should oblige

Factors controlling bed and bank erosion in the Illgraben (CH)

Debris flows can grow greatly in size and hazardous potential by eroding bed and bank materials. However, erosion mechanisms are poorly understood because debris flows are complex hybrids between a fluid flow and a moving mass of colliding particles, bed erodibility varies between events, and field measurements are hard to obtain. Here, we (i) quantify the spatio-temporal patterns of erosion and deposition and (ii) identify the key controls on debris-flow erosion in the Illgraben (CH). We use a dataset that combines information on flow properties, antecedent rainfall, and bed and bank erosion for 13 debris flows that occurred between 2019 and 2021. We show that spatio-temporal patterns of erosion and deposition in natural debris-flow torrents can be highly variable and dynamic, and we identify a memory effect where erosion is strong at locations of strong deposition during previous flows and vice versa. We find that flow conditions and antecedent rainfall (affecting bed wetness) jointly control debris-flow erosion. We find statistically significant correlations between channel erosion/deposition and a wide range of flow conditions, including frontal flow depth, velocity, and discharge, and flow volume, cumulative shear stress and seismic energy, as well as antecedent rainfall. Overall, flow conditions describing the cumulative forces exerted at the bed during an event, such as cumulative shear stress and flow volume, best explain erosion. A shear-stress approach accounting for bed erodibility may therefore be applicable for modelling and predicting debris-flow erosion. This work can provide input for model development by identifying correlations of flow and bed conditions with erosion that models should oblige

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: Comparing Intentions and Perceptions in Online Discussions

Discourse involves two perspectives: a person's intention in making an utterance and others' perception of that utterance. The misalignment between these perspectives can lead to undesirable outcomes, such as misunderstandings, low productivity and even overt strife. In this work, we present a computational framework for exploring and comparing both perspectives in online public discussions. We combine logged data about public comments on Facebook with a survey of over 16,000 people about their intentions in writing these comments or about their perceptions of comments that others had written. Unlike previous studies of online discussions that have largely relied on third-party labels to quantify properties such as sentiment and subjectivity, our approach also directly captures what the speakers actually intended when writing their comments. In particular, our analysis focuses on judgments of whether a comment is stating a fact or an opinion, since these concepts were shown to be often confused. We show that intentions and perceptions diverge in consequential ways. People are more likely to perceive opinions than to intend them, and linguistic cues that signal how an utterance is intended can differ from those that signal how it will be perceived. Further, this misalignment between intentions and perceptions can be linked to the future health of a conversation: when a comment whose author intended to share a fact is misperceived as sharing an opinion, the subsequent conversation is more likely to derail into uncivil behavior than when the comment is perceived as intended. Altogether, these findings may inform the design of discussion platforms that better promote positive interactions.Comment: Proceedings of The Web Conference (WWW) 202

Selective IgA Deficiency

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency is the most common primary immunodeficiency defined as decreased serum level of IgA in the presence of normal levels of other immunoglobulin isotypes. Most individuals with IgA deficiency are asymptomatic and identified coincidentally. However, some patients may present with recurrent infections of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, allergic disorders, and autoimmune manifestations. Although IgA is the most abundant antibody isotype produced in the body, its functions are not clearly understood. Subclass IgA1 in monomeric form is mainly found in the blood circulation, whereas subclass IgA2 in dimeric form is the dominant immunoglobulin in mucosal secretions. Secretory IgA appears to have prime importance in immune exclusion of pathogenic microorganisms and maintenance of intestinal homeostasis. Despite this critical role, there may be some compensatory mechanisms that would prevent disease manifestations in some IgA-deficient individuals. In IgA deficiency, a maturation defect in B cells to produce IgA is commonly observed. Alterations in transmembrane activator and calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand interactor gene appear to act as disease-modifying mutations in both IgA deficiency and common variable immunodeficiency, two diseases which probably lie in the same spectrum. Certain major histocompatibility complex haplotypes have been associated with susceptibility to IgA deficiency. The genetic basis of IgA deficiency remains to be clarified. Better understanding of the production and function of IgA is essential in elucidating the disease mechanism in IgA deficiency