There is growing interest in reducing emissions from electricity generation in the United States (U.S.). Renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation are all commonly suggested ...solutions. Both supply- and demand-side interventions will displace energyand emissionsfrom conventional generators. Marginal emissions factors (MEFs) give a consistent metric for assessing the avoided emissions resulting from such interventions. This paper presents the first systematic calculation of MEFs for the U.S. electricity system. Using regressions of hourly generation and emissions data from 2006 through 2011, we estimate regional MEFs for CO2, NO x , and SO2, as well as the share of marginal generation from coal-, gas-, and oil-fired generators. Trends in MEFs with respect to system load, time of day, and month are explored. We compare marginal and average emissions factors (AEFs), finding that AEFs may grossly misestimate the avoided emissions resulting from an intervention. We find significant regional differences in the emissions benefits of avoiding one megawatt-hour of electricity: compared to the West, an equivalent energy efficiency measure in the Midwest is expected to avoid roughly 70% more CO2, 12 times more SO2, and 3 times more NO x emissions.
Clinical trials of novel therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) have consumed a large amount of time and resources with largely negative results. Repurposing drugs already approved by the Food and ...Drug Administration (FDA) for another indication is a more rapid and less expensive option. We present DRIAD (Drug Repurposing In AD), a machine learning framework that quantifies potential associations between the pathology of AD severity (the Braak stage) and molecular mechanisms as encoded in lists of gene names. DRIAD is applied to lists of genes arising from perturbations in differentiated human neural cell cultures by 80 FDA-approved and clinically tested drugs, producing a ranked list of possible repurposing candidates. Top-scoring drugs are inspected for common trends among their targets. We propose that the DRIAD method can be used to nominate drugs that, after additional validation and identification of relevant pharmacodynamic biomarker(s), could be readily evaluated in a clinical trial.
Metformin, a diabetes drug with anti-aging cellular responses, has complex actions that may alter dementia onset. Mixed results are emerging from prior observational studies. To address this ...complexity, we deploy a causal inference approach accounting for the competing risk of death in emulated clinical trials using two distinct electronic health record systems. In intention-to-treat analyses, metformin use associates with lower hazard of all-cause mortality and lower cause-specific hazard of dementia onset, after accounting for prolonged survival, relative to sulfonylureas. In parallel systems pharmacology studies, the expression of two AD-related proteins, APOE and SPP1, was suppressed by pharmacologic concentrations of metformin in differentiated human neural cells, relative to a sulfonylurea. Together, our findings suggest that metformin might reduce the risk of dementia in diabetes patients through mechanisms beyond glycemic control, and that SPP1 is a candidate biomarker for metformin's action in the brain.
Interdisciplinary syntheses are needed to scale up discovery of the environmental drivers and molecular basis of adaptation in nature. Here we integrated novel approaches using whole genome ...sequences, satellite remote sensing, and transgenic experiments to study natural loss-of-function alleles associated with drought histories in wild
. The genes we identified exhibit population genetic signatures of parallel molecular evolution, selection for loss-of-function, and shared associations with flowering time phenotypes in directions consistent with longstanding adaptive hypotheses seven times more often than expected by chance. We then confirmed predicted phenotypes experimentally in transgenic knockout lines. These findings reveal the importance of drought timing to explain the evolution of alternative drought tolerance strategies and further challenge popular assumptions about the adaptive value of genetic loss-of-function in nature. These results also motivate improved species-wide sequencing efforts to better identify loss-of-function variants and inspire new opportunities for engineering climate resilience in crops.
When wind or solar energy displace conventional generation, the reduction in emissions varies dramatically across the United States. Although the Southwest has the greatest solar resource, a solar ...panel in New Jersey displaces significantly more sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter than a panel in Arizona, resulting in 15 times more health and environmental benefits. A wind turbine in West Virginia displaces twice as much carbon dioxide as the same turbine in California. Depending on location, we estimate that the combined health, environmental, and climate benefits from wind or solar range from $10/MWh to $100/MWh, and the sites with the highest energy output do not yield the greatest social benefits in many cases. We estimate that the social benefits from existing wind farms are roughly 60% higher than the cost of the Production Tax Credit, an important federal subsidy for wind energy. However, that same investment could achieve greater health, environmental, and climate benefits if it were differentiated by region.
The socioeconomic status of applicants to Canadian medical schools has been understudied in the past two decades. Institutional efforts have been made to address the lack of socioeconomic diversity ...across Canada during this time. We investigated the income characteristics of medical school applicants, as well as the relationship between applicant income and offer of admission, to characterize the current state of socioeconomic diversity in medical admissions.
We conducted a retrospective cohort study on 26,120 applicants at one Ontario medical school from 2013 to 2018. Characteristics of applicants who were offered admission were compared to the general population and applicants not offered admission. Regression analyses were used to investigate the association between median total neighborhood income and successful admission.
The median total neighborhood income for medical school applicants was $98,816, which was approximately $28,480 higher than the Canadian general population. Those not admitted to the medical school had a median total neighborhood income of $98,304 compared to $105,984 for those offered admission (p < 0.001). This trend was seen in every province and territory in Canada. Median total neighborhood income was a predictor of an offer of admission; applicants in the >75th percentile income group had 54% increased odds of being offered admission when compared to applicants in the <25th percentile in our unadjusted model. Income was not significant in our adjusted models but showed that the income medians drastically shifted between pre-interview and post-interview periods, from $98,816 to $104,960 (p < 0.001).
Medical school applicants are from higher economic strata compared to the general population. Despite already representing a high economic stratum, a higher median total neighborhood income relative to other applicants was associated with an offer of admission.
Using data on a mid-sized community college in northeast Ohio as a case study, we examine patterns of enrollment in petroleum technology credential programs and labor market returns to those ...credentials. The enrollment analysis yields mixed results. Strong industry conditions represented by an increase in oil prices is associated with a decline in program enrollment; however, higher wages for petroleum workers is associated with increased program enrollment. Earning analyses were unambiguous: Obtaining a certificate or an associate’s degree was associated with outsized quarterly earnings returns of $2,900 and $5,500, respectively. This study suggests that partnerships that align subbaccalaureate postsecondary education to the needs of local labor markets may result in occupational credentials with substantially larger returns than those observed in the literature.
In this conceptual paper, we explore a framework of reasoning practices for decision-making in context. We extend prior work related to socioscientific issues (SSI) (Sadler et al., 2007) to consider ...the applicability of this framework to sociomathematical issues, specifically using the context of fairness in political (re)districting. We illustrate the usefulness of the SSI framework for sociomathematical issues drawing on student work and reflections from two undergraduate courses. We conclude by suggesting adjustments to reasoning practices of the SSI framework that might uniquely reflect the nature of sociomathematical reasoning. We discuss implications of our findings for conceptualizing reasoning practices that include mathematical perspectives within social and political contexts and for mathematics education generally.
•Reasoning about a societal issue consists of intertwining personal, practical, contextual, and mathematical meaning.•A framework based on Sadler, Barab & Scott’s (2007) analysis of reasoning practices regarding socioscientific issues is useful for analyzing emergent student reasoning in the context of redistricting, a sociomathematical issue.•Students reason in multiple, sophisticated ways about the fairness of specific maps and redistricting processes.
Parasitic infections induce a magnitude of host responses. At the opposite ends of the spectrum are those that ensure the host's needs to eliminate the invaders and to minimize damage to its own ...tissues. This review analyzes how parasites would manipulate immunity by activating the immunosuppressive nuclear factor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) with type 2 cytokines and free fatty acids from arachidonic acid metabolism. PPARs limit the action of type 1 immunity, in which classically activated macrophages act through the production of proinflammatory signals, to spare the parasites. They also favor the development of alternately activated macrophages which control inflammation so the host would not be destroyed. Possibly, the nuclear factors hold a pivotal role in the establishment of chronic infection by delicately balancing the pro- and anti-inflammatory signaling mechanisms and their ligands may be used as combination therapeutics to limit host pathology.
This first of five annual reports focuses on employment and wages in energy and advanced manufacturing–related industries and on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education ...indicators in the Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) region. These reports will inform the regional stakeholder community about localities with greater demand for STEM careers and guide API investments and collaborative work.
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