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Enhanced Line Narrowing of Selectively Labeled [9-15N] Guanosine Enables Probing of Large RNAs
No full textRNA regulates various cellular processes using malleable 3D structures and characterizing their structural dynamics is critical to shedding light on their mechanism of action. To mitigate continuing limitations on studies of large RNA by solution NMR spectroscopy, we have extended a recently described 2H-enhanced, 1H-15N correlation approach by developing a chemoenzymatic labeling technology that grafts selectively labeled [9-15N]-Guanine on to any available labeled ribose to make [9-15N]-GTP. The low CSA of the N9 nucleus (~112 ppm) in combination with extensive ribose deuteration leads to long-lived NMR signals that enable chemical shift assignment, analyze the structure of three biologically relevant large RNA constructs pivotal to viral life cycles [human hepatitis B virus ε RNA (61nt), the HIV-1 primer binding site segment RNA (103 nt), and the HIV-1 Rev response element (232 nt)], observe N9-H8 and N9-H1' correlations, and measure longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates for RNAs as large as 78 kDa. We show CSA dominates both N7 (>99%) and N9 (>90%) relaxation and enables straightforward analysis of dynamics. Taken together, application of these selective labels in conjunction with optimized NMR pulse sequences could push the limits of size restrictions in RNA NMR structural biology beyond 100 nt.We acknowledge support from NIH (U54 AI17660-TKD, DAC, MFS, JM), (R01 AI150498 to MFS) and NSF (DBI1040158-TKD).https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/679d4adbfa469535b999f69
A Blockchain-based Quantum Binary Voting for Decentralized IoT Towards Industry 5.0
No full textIndustry 5.0 depends on intelligence, automation, and hyperconnectivity operations for effective and sustainable human-machine collaboration. Pivotal technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) enable this by facilitating connectivity and data-driven decision-making between cyber-physical devices. As IoT devices are prone to cyberattacks, they can use blockchain to improve transparency in the network and prevent data tampering. However, in some cases, even blockchain networks are vulnerable to Sybil and 51% attacks. This has motivated the development of quantum blockchains that are more resilient to such attacks as they leverage post-quantum cryptographic protocols and secure quantum communication channels. In this work, we develop a quantum binary voting algorithm for the IoT-quantum blockchain frameworks that enables inter-connected devices to reach a consensus on the validity of transactions, even in the presence of potential faults or malicious actors. The correctness of the voting protocol is provided in detail, and the results show that it guarantees the achievement of a consensus securely against all kinds of significant external and internal attacks concerning quantum bit commitment, quantum blockchain, and quantum Byzantine agreement. We also provide an implementation of the voting algorithm with the quantum circuits simulated on the IBM Quantum platform and Simulaqron library.http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.2024
Artifact: Defining and Analyzing Smart Device Passive Mode
No full text23rd International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2025), Mar 2025, Washington DC, United StatesThis artifact paper presents a guide for the Smart Home IoT Passive Mode Analysis tool and dataset to perform network traffic analysis (NTA) on smart home IoT devices in passive mode. The repository includes: 1) scripts and configurations for processing network traffic capture files and extracting the relevant information; 2) output data files for the experiments conducted; and 3) a link to the raw network capture dataset. The dataset contains 12GB of passive mode traffic from 32 devices across 3 testbeds; between 71 and 196 hours of traffic is present for each device.https://inria.hal.science/hal-0500158
Sex-specific associations of vitamin D and bone biomarkers with bone density and physical function during recovery from hip fracture: the Baltimore Hip Studies
No full textSummary
Less is known about recovery from hip fracture in men. We found differences in 25-hydroxyvitamin D and bone biomarkers between men and women during the year after hip fracture, underscoring the importance of vitamin D assessment in older men and pharmaceutical treatment to reduce bone resorption after hip fracture.
Purpose
Less is known about recovery from hip fracture in men compared to women. We examined differences between men and women in 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and bone turnover markers, and associations with bone mineral density (BMD) and physical function, during the year after a hip fracture.
Methods
Community-dwelling, ambulatory adults aged 65 years and over (157 men and 154 women) enrolled in the Baltimore Hip Studies 7th cohort were included. We analyzed 25OHD, C-terminal telopeptide (β-CTX-I), procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide (PINP), PTH, and femoral neck BMD at baseline, 2, 6, and 12 months after hip fracture, and short physical performance battery (SPPB) at 2, 6, and 12 months.
Results
During admission for hip fracture, median 25OHD levels were 15.2 ng/mL (IQR 10.0) in men compared with 23.9 ng/mL (IQR 13.4) in women and remained lower in men at 2, 6, and 12 months (all p < 0.001). β-CTX-I was higher in men on admission, and at 2 and 6 months (all p < 0.05), and PINP was higher in men at 6 months (p = 0.04), with no significant differences between men and women in PTH. Higher 25OHD and PINP concentrations in women only and lower β-CTX-I and PTH concentrations in both sexes were associated with greater BMD. Higher 25OHD concentrations were associated with higher SPPB scores in both sexes.
Conclusions
These findings underscore the importance of vitamin D assessment in older men and missed opportunities in both sexes for vitamin D supplementation and pharmaceutical treatment to reduce bone resorption after hip fracture.The research reported in this article was supported by R37AG009901 MERIT Award, R01AG029315, R01AG048069, T32AG00262, P30AG028747, and K24AG042765 from the National Institute on Aging and ULTR003098 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health. JMK currently holds a position at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, but his contribution to the contents of this manuscript occurred while on clinical faculty in the Division of Endohttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-025-07446-
VERITAS and multiwavelength observations of the Blazar B3 2247+381 in response to an IceCube neutrino alert
No full textWhile the sources of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory are still largely unknown, one of the promising methods used towards understanding this is investigating the potential temporal and spatial correlations between neutrino alerts and the electromagnetic radiation from blazars. We report on the multiwavelength target-of-opportunity observations of the blazar B3 2247+381, taken in response to an IceCube multiplet alert for a cluster of muon neutrino events compatible with the source location between May 20, 2022 and November 10, 2022. B3 2247+381 was not detected with VERITAS during this time period. The source was found to be in a low-flux state in the optical, ultraviolet and gamma-ray bands for the time interval corresponding to the neutrino event, but was detected in the hard X-ray band with NuSTAR during this period. We find the multiwavelength spectral energy distribution is well described using a simple one-zone leptonic synchrotron self-Compton radiation model. Moreover, assuming the neutrinos originate from hadronic processes within the jet, the neutrino flux would be accompanied by a photon flux from the cascade emission, and the integrated photon flux required in such a case would significantly exceed the total multiwavelength fluxes and the VERITAS upper limits presented here. The lack of flaring activity observed with VERITAS, combined with the low multiwavelength flux levels, and given the significance of the neutrino excess is at 3σ level (uncorrected for trials), makes B3 2247+381 an unlikely source of the IceCube multiplet. We conclude that the neutrino excess is likely a background fluctuation.This research is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution, by NSERC in Canada, and by the Helmholtz Association in Germany. This research used resources provided by the Open Science Grid, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We acknowledge the excellent work of the technical support staff at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory and at the collaborating institutions in the construction and operation of the instrument. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the following agencies and institutions: USA – U.S. National Science Foundation-Office of Polar Programs, U.S. National Science Foundation-Physics Division, U.S. National Science Foundation-EPSCoR, U.S. National Science Foundation-Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Open Science Grid (OSG), Partnership to Advance Throughput Computing (PATh), Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS), Frontera computing project at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, U.S. Department of Energy-National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Particle astrophysics research computing center at the University of Maryland, Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University, Astroparticle physics computational facility at Marquette University, NVIDIA Corporation, and Google Cloud Platform; Belgium – Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS and FWO), FWO Odysseus and Big Science programmes, and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo); Germany – Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP), Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), and High Performance Computing cluster of the RWTH Aachen; Sweden – Swedish Research Council, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC), and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; European Union – EGI Advanced Computing for research; Australia – Australian Research Council; Canada – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Calcul Québec, Compute Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation, WestGrid, and Digital Research Alliance of Canada; Denmark – Villum Fonden, Carlsberg Foundation, and European Commission; New Zealand – Marsden Fund; Japan – Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Institute for Global Prominent Research (IGPR) of Chiba University; Korea – National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Switzerland – Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). This work has made use of data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project is primarily funded to search for near earth asteroids through NASA grants NN12AR55G, 80NSSC18K0284, and 80NSSC18K1575; byproducts of the NEO search include images and catalogs from the survey area. This work was partially funded by Kepler/K2 grant J1944/80NSSC19K0112 and HST GO-15889, and STFC grants ST/T000198/1 and ST/S006109/1. The ATLAS science products have been made possible through the contributions of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the Queen’s University Belfast, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the South African Astronomical Observatory, and The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Chile. Part of this work is based on archival data, software or online services provided by the Space Science Data Center - ASI. E.S-S’s work at Barnard College was supported by grants: NASA 80NSSC23K0239 and NSF PHY 120096.http://arxiv.org/abs/2502.0385
Probing Electrochemical Strain Generation in Vanadium Oxide Cathodes during Cycling of Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries via Imaging Technique
No full textAqueous batteries have received a great deal of attention for grid-scale energy storage applications but suffer from low-capacity retention and utilization. A lack of understanding of chemomechanical instabilities and charge storage mechanisms in cathodes limits the development of advanced aqueous batteries. To shed light on these instabilities, operando techniques are necessary to probe the complex interplay between electrochemistry and mechanics during cycling. Here, we report an operando technique to probe electrochemical strains in cathodes in aqueous electrolytes during battery cycling via optical imaging and digital image correlation. Operando mechanical measurements indicate that the cathode undergoes positive strain generation during discharge and negative generation during charge. Strain derivatives reveal a close correlation between electrochemical and mechanical behaviors, highlighting the connection between electrochemistry and mechanics. This operando imaging technique is broadly applicable and paves the way for a deeper understanding of deformation mechanisms in aqueous, multivalent ion battery materials.Operando strain and electrochemical measurements werecarried out at Oklahoma State University and the Universityof Maryland Baltimore County. Parts of this work were carriedout in the Microscopy Laboratory, Oklahoma State University,which received funds for purchasing the equipment from theNSF MRI program. This work was supported by the start-upgrant at the University of Maryland Baltimore Countyhttps://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/cbmi.5c0000
How 19th-century Spiritualists ‘canceled’ the idea of hell to address social and political concerns
No full textSpiritualists believed that after shedding the body in death, the spirit would continue on a celestial journey and help those on Earth create a more just world.http://theconversation.com/how-19th-century-spiritualists-canceled-the-idea-of-hell-to-address-social-and-political-concerns-22763
Emotion Regulation, Coping Self-Efficacy, and PTSD Symptoms Among Individuals in Residential Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Brief Report
No full textIndividuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often have difficulty regulating their emotions and might use substances as an alternative to healthy emotion regulation strategies. Unsurprisingly, emotion regulation difficulties are often severe in those with substance use disorders (SUD), which are highly comorbid with PTSD. Enhancing coping self-efficacy (CSE) is a promising PTSD treatment strategy, but it is unclear how CSE relates to PTSD symptom severity in those that experience particular difficulty in regulating emotions (e.g. SUD populations), or how it might function in clinical, treatment seeking samples. This study assessed the potential moderation effect between CSE and emotion regulation difficulty with regard to PTSD symptoms among 126 adults in residential SUD treatment (Mage = 39.77 [SD = 12.25]; 37% women; 62% men; 48% white; 39% black; 14% multiracial/other). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed main effects for both emotion regulation and CSE, but no significant interaction between the two, emphasizing the distinction between belief in coping ability versus defined regulation skills and pointing to potential clinical implications. Additional research is needed to quantify the conceptual overlap between emotion regulation and CSE in this population.Portions of these analyses were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies virtual convention November 16-21, 2021https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2025.2480369?src
Black Women in Leadership at American Community Colleges: Exploring Systemic Barriers and Racial Microaggressions
No full textABSTRACT
Black women in leadership positions at American community colleges face persistent systemic barriers and racial microaggressions that impact their professional and personal well-being. This descriptive phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Black women in leadership positions within American community colleges by examining their encounters with systemic barriers and racial microaggressions, the impact of these experiences on their mental and physical health, and the coping strategies that they employed to navigate these challenges and advance in their careers. Data were collected through an online survey of 25 participants, in-depth interviews with 12 Black women leaders holding positions ranging from faculty to president, and the Self-Anchoring Scale activity measuring their stress levels. The results of the interviews, the primary data source, revealed five major themes related to systemic barriers within the institution: institutional culture and climate, discrimination in hiring and promotion practices, institutional response to discriminatory practices, lack of representation of Blacks in leadership, and lack of institutional support and mentorship. Participants reported experiencing three types of racial microaggressions, namely, microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations, that resulted in significant physical and psychological impacts, including increased stress levels, hypervigilance, and changes in professional behavior. Despite these challenges, the participants demonstrated remarkable resilience through various coping strategies, including spirituality, professional documentation, self-advocacy, and support networks. The study concludes with recommendations for changes within the policy and practices of the institutions that include providing and implementing support networks and mentorship programs for Black women, all of which are aimed at addressing systemic barriers and racial microaggressions. These efforts are intended to foster more inclusive and equitable leadership environments within American community colleges. This research contributes to understanding how intersectionality and the intersecting identities of race, gender, and leadership roles shape the experiences of Black women in higher education and provides practical implications for institutional awareness and, ultimately, change
Investigating Cognitive Performance in Gamers and Non-Gamers
No full textAs gaming becomes an increasingly prevalent form of entertainment, understanding its cognitive effects is essential. This study examines the relationship between gaming and cognitive performance, focusing on reaction time. We explore whether video game players demonstrate improved cognitive skills compared to non-players by analyzing data collected from student participants through reaction time benchmark tests. Additionally, we explore how the duration and frequency of gaming impact cognitive performance. By analyzing this data, we hope to evaluate cognitive performance found in student gamers and non-gamers. Our findings aim to clarify whether gaming is associated with enhanced cognitive abilities and to assess the extent to which different gaming habits influence performance. Ultimately, this research seeks to demonstrate that moderate video game play may provide measurable benefits in memory and reaction time, contributing to the broader discourse on gaming and cognition