University at Albany, State University of New York
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Progress Towards Peptide and Protein Synthesis Involving Thiol Moieties
Get PDFPolypeptides and proteins play crucial roles in biological systems, including enzymatic activity regulation, molecule transport, and cell and tissue structural support. Amino acids are the building blocks of peptides and proteins, and peptides can act as hormones, neurotransmitters, and enzymes. Proteins are made up of one or more polypeptide chains and have diverse functions such as catalyzing chemical reactions, transporting molecules, and providing structural support. Protein preparation can be done biologically by expression systems or isolation and purification from natural sources. While these methods have their advantages, they also have their shortcomings. Chemical synthesis is an alternative method that allows for the introduction of post-translational modifications and non-canonical amino acids with precise control over their location and frequency. Solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) is a widely used chemical synthesis method that involves the use of a solid support, typically a resin, to which the first amino acid of the peptide is attached. Subsequent amino acids are then added one at a time, in a stepwise fashion, with each amino acid protected by a temporary functional group that prevents unwanted side reactions. The use of a solid support allows for easy purification of the desired peptide and allows for the synthesis of longer and more complex peptides. Chemical synthesis methods have advantages such as precise control over PTMs, introducing non-canonical amino acids, and the ability to produce proteins that are difficult to obtain through biological methods. In this thesis, we propose two primary methods of peptide synthesis; 1.) intermolecular bonding of disulfide bond using and 2.) synthesis of protecting group-free sugar-containing oligopeptides. The study aims to synthesize a disulfide-rich peptide using solid-phase peptide synthesis and reacting it with a phosphate buffer to investigate the formation of mixed disulfide bonds. The experiments involve various analytical techniques, such as HPLC and mass spectrometry. Overall, these studies enriched our understanding of thiol functional group reactivities in the polypeptide settings and complemented the existing thiol oxidation tactics
Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia
No full textThe Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia explores the nature and implications of civil society across the region, engaging systematically with both theoretical approaches and empirical nuance for a systematic, comparative, and informative approach.
The handbook actively analyses the varying definitions of civil society, critiquing the inconsistent scrutiny of this sphere over time. It brings forth the need to reconsider civil society development in today’s Southeast Asia, including activist organisations\u27 and platforms\u27 composition, claims, resources, and potential to effect sociopolitical change. Structured in five parts, the volume includes chapters written by an international set of experts analysing topics relating to civil society: Spaces and platforms Place within politics Resources and tactics Identity formation and claims Advocacy
The handbook highlights the importance of civil society as a domain for political engagement outside the state and parties, across Southeast Asia, as well as the prevalence and weight of \u27uncivil\u27 dimensions. It offers a well-informed and comprehensive analysis of the topic and is an indispensable reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Asian Studies, Asian Politics, Southeast Asian Politics and Comparative Politics
Healthy Families New York: Strategies for Approaching First Conversations with Families About Finances
Get PDFEnhancing family self-sufficiency is one of the major goals of Healthy Families New York: we hope that, over the course of participation in home visiting, families will be able to increase their available income, receive more of the benefits available to them, more efficiently use their resources, or set and meet their own financial goals. Inadequate income is one of the major eligibility criteria for family participation in HFNY; indeed, nearly three-quarters of families were recorded as having inadequate or insufficient income as of program enrollment, meaning that they did not feel they had enough money or benefits to meet their and their families’ needs, and many report it to be one of their largest sources of stress, demonstrating significant and widespread financial needs and current difficulties.
But while HFNY has seen great success in other domains, changes in family self-sufficiency have been more difficult to observe. And similarly, most HFNY staff have reported that while they feel comfortable generally discussing financial issues with families, only about half agree that they have the necessary skills to do so; many also noted that they did not understand the reason for HFNY to gather information such as available monthly income since there is not a specific threshold for eligibility. In combination, these factors result in specific information about family income being missing in the data system, particularly at program enrollment. Since income information will be required for 2023 HFAST reporting, it is crucial that staff develop the skills to talk about financial needs in more detail from the start of family involvement in HFNY.
In response to this gap, the Center for Human Services Research hosted a webinar with HFNY direct service staff in the fall of 2022 to discuss the need for and use of family financial information and to collectively brainstorm strategies and approaches to asking better questions about families’ financial needs to connect them with the most appropriate resources
Babel Blackness: The Aesth-ethical Turn in Post-colonial Translation
Get PDF“How do we make art in an ethical way?” (Marlene NourbeSe Philip) is the leading question lying at the basis of this article, which inspired by the story of the unauthorized Italian translation of Zong! seeks to investigate on the ethics of translation and propose a new turn in translation studies, namely a black aesth-ethical one. The proposal here examined is indeed informed by both aesthetics, and ethics. It presents translation as a practice, that draws on recent debates on black aesthetics, with specific reference to the Afro-optimism (AO) of cultural theorist and poet Fred Moten (2013, 2018, 2019) and the Black Feminist Po-Ethics (BFP) of sociologist and artist Denise Ferreira da Silva (2016, 2021). The paper will be divided into three sections: I will first examine the main theories of ethics and aesthetics that have affected Western translation studies; I will then analyze how those theories have been both used and opposed in the postcolonial translation of literary texts (especially written by black authors); and I will finally introduce an aesth-ethical model as proposed by AO and BFP within black aesthetics, and foreground its implications in postcolonial translation. A conclusion will follow about the possible outcomes of the offered proposal, namely, an alternative way to know and improve the translation of postcolonial black literature, and a more critical and responsible awareness capable of preventing episodes analogous to the unauthorized mistranslation of Zong!
How the “Black Criminal” Stereotype Shapes Black People’s Psychological Experience of Policing: Evidence of Stereotype Threat and Remaining Questions
Get PDFCultural stereotypes that link Black race to crime in the U.S. originated in and are perpetuated by policies that result in the disproportionate criminalization and punishment of Black people. The scientific record is replete with evidence that these stereotypes impact perceivers’ perceptions, information processing, and decision-making in ways that produce more negative criminal legal outcomes for Black people than White people. However, relatively scant attention has been paid to understanding how situations that present a risk of being evaluated through the lens of crime-related stereotypes also directly affect Black people. In this article, I consider one situation in particular: encounters with police. I draw on social psychological research on stereotype threat generally as well as the few existing studies of crime-related stereotype threat specifically to illuminate how the cultural context creates psychologically distinct experiences of police encounters for Black people as compared to White people. I further consider the potential ramifications of stereotype threat effects on police officers’ judgments and treatment of Black people as well as for Black people’s safety and wellbeing in other criminal legal contexts and throughout their lives. Finally, I conclude with a call for increased scholarly attention to crime-related stereotype threat and the role it plays in contributing to racial disparities in policing outcomes, particularly with regard to diverse racial, ethnic, and intersectional identities and personal vulnerability factors and the systemic changes that might mitigate its deleterious effects
Reframing the Federal Election Commission: A Nonpartisan Solution
Get PDFThe Federal Election Commission (FEC) is known for its dysfunction: political gridlock, insufficient funding, and vacancies that hinder enforcement of campaign finance law. This study suggests the root of the problem lies in the agency’s character as a bipartisan institution, and proposes a nonpartisan reframing. This research offers statistical analysis of Supreme Court justice confirmation votes to inform a theory-based restructure of the FEC. The Court’s confirmation process has historically utilized a supermajority cloture vote, however, that threshold was lowered to a simple majority in 2017. The result was an immediate spike of political polarization in the Court. Raising the FEC confirmation cloture vote from its current simple majority to a traditional supermajority will spark active and ideologically balanced election regulation. Further reforms to the Senate’s role include ceasing the use of the voice vote in confirmations—to allow for further research on voting patterns—and retiring the customary nomination of two new commissioners at a time from opposing political parties. Nonpartisanship would also be cultivated by reversing the FEC’s vote quorum, such that a majority vote is necessary for commissioners to dismiss a campaign violation investigation, rather than to act. Although the likelihood of implementation is low, these findings may inform further study of FEC effectiveness. Future research must discover politically feasible reform to make accountability the rule—rather than the exception—in United States federal elections
The Effectiveness of Online Activism: Who It Is Effective for, What Issues It Is Effective for, and What Time Period It Is Effective for
Get PDFThe Internet is relatively new and constantly changing, which makes it hard for political organizations and activist groups to know how to mobilize via this medium. Online activism is the process of using the Internet to communicate, spread information, and organize traditional activism (Martin 2007); People who use this form of activism are usually thought of as only showing token support for a cause without being willing to engage in more meaningful support (St Louis 2014). In this paper, I will analyze under what circumstances online activism is effective. To answer this question, I must first determine who online activism is effective for, what issues it is effective for, and what time period it is effective for. I collected my information by searching the Internet, primarily using Google and Google Scholar, for what literature existed within the topic of online activism, and then sorted my findings into two categories: opinion-based and evidence-based. I decided to analyze these two different types of sources, opinion-based and experiment-based, as together they would provide a more all-encompassing understanding of online activism. Through my analysis, I found that activism is most effective for young people as well as women. There is a belief that individuals who engage in online activism are looking for an easy way out, however, I found that young people’s preferences and skills are more in line with digital action so that is why they turn to it. Additionally, online activism is most effective in realizing short-term goals within a cause. This form of activism is highly effective at bringing attention to an issue as well as raising funds. Since the Internet is fast-paced, online support is quick to die out so online activism works best for quick, short-term campaigns. This understanding of who online activism is effective for as well as what goals and time period it is most effective for has important consequences for how political and activist groups structure their campaigns. Depending on who they are trying to engage and what goals they may have, these groups will have to present their mission in different ways
Evaluating and Improving Snow Prediction in the National Water Model in New York State Using New York State Mesonet Data
Get PDFWhen snow melts, the water drains into nearby streams and rivers which can impact water supply and flood hazards. The National Water Model (NWM) provides high quality forecast data for streamflow in the continental United States using mathematical representations of hydrologic processes. This research evaluates how the land surface model (LSM), Noah-MP, in the NWM simulates snowpack and snowmelt in New York State. To evaluate the representation of snow melt in Noah-MP, we examine point simulations at the New York State Mesonet (NYSM) sites where Noah-MP is forced by NYSM meteorological observations to avoid biases in the meteorological input and isolate the LSM formulation as the source of biases. Additionally, we examine distributed runs across the whole state forced by a gridded meteorological analysis. Compared to the NYSM snow depth observations averaged at all sites, the snow depth output in the ablation period of point-simulations is too high. Through controlled sensitivity experiments where an aspect of the model is altered in isolation, it is revealed that the snowpack in Noah-MP is strongly sensitive to a parameter of snow albedo decay, ��0. There is a bias in the melt rate in the model causing slow snow melt which can be changed by altering the ��0 value. Decreasing the value of ��0 causes the snow to melt faster and the predicted snow depth and snow water equivalent to be more similar to observations. Decreasing the value of ��0 and increasing the rate of albedo decay also causes the model albedo decay rate to be more similar to observations. Through evaluation of how albedo changes in the model for snow melt periods at NYSM sites, the NWM biases in the northeast United States can be more deeply understood
Let\u27s Speculate About It: When and Why Consumers Want to Discuss Mystery Products
Get PDFResearch suggests that mystery products can be appealing to consumers and can motivate interest and purchase. In this paper, we examine a different benefit of these offerings – their effect on driving conversation. We propose that such products can prompt a conversation due to their ability to motivate joint speculation, or the process of thinking about possible resolutions of the uncertainty with others. We define this novel driver of conversation, delineate it from related constructs, and situate it in the literature. We then provide initial evidence for the proposed theory in seven studies (n = 2,835), demonstrating that mystery products increase the desire for conversation (Studies 1, 3-4, Supplemental studies A-C) and generate joint speculation (Studies 2-4, Supplemental study B-C). We also rule out alternative explanations (such as information acquisition and savoring, Study 3; novelty, Supplemental study B). These effects, however, are attenuated for closed-minded consumers (Study 4) who are less open to considering multiple perspectives and thereby less interested in joint speculation. We conclude with directions for future research and implications for marketers