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Economic Indicators of the College Station-Bryan MSA, March 2024 ���
No full textMarch 2024 release of the Economic Indicators report.The Business-Cycle Index increased 0.2% from December 2023 to January 2024. The local unemployment rate for January 2024 was 3.1% in January 2024, unchanged from December 2023. In the March data release, January���s local nonfarm employment decreased by 0.3% from December 2023. Inflation-adjusted taxable sales were up by almost 1% from December 2023 to January 2024. Inflation-adjusted quarterly wages were down by 1.6% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter
From the Coast to the Deep Sea: Carbonate Chemistry of Calcifying Ecosystems
No full textIncreasing ocean acidification (OA) driven by anthropogenic activities represents a significant threat to calcifying reef ecosystems worldwide. Calcifying reefs, such as coral and oyster reefs, provide valuable ecosystems services including coastal protection, fishery habitat, and recreational and tourism opportunities. However, our understanding of acidification under extreme conditions (i.e., tropical cyclones) and environments (i.e., deep ocean) is currently limited. In the following studies, we focus on the carbonate chemistry of two calcifying ecosystems: coastal oyster reefs in Galveston Bay and deep-sea coral reefs in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain (HESC).
In Galveston Bay, we show that river discharge exhibits a strong control on spatiotemporal variability of bay and river water carbonate chemistry signals, with enhanced acidification under wet (i.e., high discharge) conditions. We also document the first records of tropical cyclone-induced undersaturation, which persisted for multiple weeks after two storms made landfall. Undersaturation was driven by high volumes of rainfall and runoff from a Category 4 Hurricane and a Tropical Storm. Our results reveal that rainfall rates, rather than storm severity (i.e., wind speed), more accurately predict tropical cyclone effects on coastal acidification. However, levels of low aragonite saturation harmful to oysters was not exclusive to post-storm periods and occurred more than 15% of the time during our study in response to increased local river fluxes.
In the HESC, we characterized the carbonate chemistry signatures of major water masses in the central North Pacific, including intermediate waters (300-800 m) where deep-sea coral reef ecosystems have been found. We hypothesize that the influence of the more northern, acidic Pacific Subpolar Intermediate Water, characterized by hypoxia (low oxygen) and aragonite undersaturation, acts as a biogeochemical barrier for deep-sea reef development in the HESC. Our results also show that seamount topography can affect physical currents and alter the water chemistry of benthic seamount communities. While the average reef depths are currently near or above the aragonite saturation horizon (ASH, the boundary between undersaturated and supersaturated water), long-term shoaling of the ASH due to anthropogenic OA, along with seasonal variability, represent an increasing risk to these reef ecosystems
U.S. Budget Woes
Get PDFThe Congressional Budget Office's latest economic and budget projections from "An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034" are worrisome, to say the least. The CBO projects large and persistent federal government deficits through 2034, and with no end in sight. In the Fall 2024 issue of PERCspectives on Policy, Dennis Jansen and Somali Ghosh Sinha take a historical look at the debt held by the public as a percent of GDP from pre-World War II onwards, analyze how increased government spending during the Covid-19 pandemic differed from war-era deficits, and discuss the causes behind ever-increasing government outlays
Countering Mainstream Bias in Recommendations With End-to-End Adaptive Local Learning
No full textCollaborative Filtering (CF) based recommender systems suffer from different types of biases, one of them is mainstream bias ��� where mainstream users are prioritized over niche users, resulting in suboptimal recommendation quality for a substantial portion of long-tail users. In this thesis, we pinpoint two root causes underlying the prevalence of mainstream bias: (i) discrepancy modeling, whereby the CF algorithms disproportionately focus on modeling mainstream users while inadvertently neglecting the unique preferences of niche users; and (ii) unsynchronized learning, wherein niche users require more training epochs than mainstream users to reach peak performance.
Targeting these causes, we introduce a novel end-To-end Adaptive Local Learning (TALL) framework to provide high-quality recommendations to both mainstream and niche users. Two of the unique properties of this proposed framework are: (i) a loss-driven Mixture-of-Experts component that adaptively ensembles expert models, crafting customized local models for different users; and (ii) an adaptive weight module to synchronize the learning trajectories of different users by dynamically adjusting weights in the loss function. Extensive experiments demonstrate the strong performance of the proposed model compared to SOTA alternatives
Advancing Oral Health: Exploring Preliminary Vaccines for Periodontal Disease
Get PDFPeriodontitis is an irreversible plaque-induced disease that leads to alveolar bone loss. Approximately nine out of ten adults have a form of periodontal disease. Manifestations of periodontitis include alveolar bone loss, gingival recession, gingivitis, and if left untreated, tooth loss. The main treatment options for periodontal disease are short-term and mainly rely on plaque and calculus removal. These treatments work by removing periodontal disease-causing bacteria found in plaque and calculus, however, bone loss because of periodontal disease is not directly induced by the bacteria but caused by the body's inflammatory response. Considering this fact, management and prevention of periodontal disease should consider treatment that focuses on the host's inflammatory immune response to the bacteria. Many preliminary vaccines against periodontal disease target the host���s immune response. The vaccines work by eliciting antibody immune response from the host by introducing altered forms of inactivated gingivalis proteins. Three periodontal vaccines stood out: cell-free generated vaccine, flagellin adjuvanted Hgp44 vaccine, and P. gingivalis capsule-conjugate Vaccine. While these three vaccines use different antigens, they all are designed to protect against P. gingivalis. All three vaccines proved effective by eliciting a greater IgG immune response and reduced alveolar bone loss compared to the control groups. Future directions involve trials on animals more closely related to humans, determining optimal vaccine administration routes, and exploring the vaccine's potential in treating active periodontal infections. The pre-clinical studies lay the foundation for a comprehensive approach to combating periodontal disease and related health issues. Results of available studies on periodontal vaccines demonstrate further research should be completed to determine the long-term practical implications of these preliminary vaccines
