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Is Sophistication Always Better? Can Perceived Data Analytic Tool Sophistication Lead to Biased Judgements?
Get PDFThe rise of technology-enabled data analytic tools creates opportunities for firms to improve audit quality related to complex estimates. To combat auditors’ resistance to using technology-enabled tools, firms may promote the sophistication of such tools to their audit staff. However, there is a paucity of research that has examined how auditors’ perceived sophistication of an analytic tool impacts judgments about audit evidence. We conduct an experiment and find that, holding all other information constant, the preferences of an audit supervisor interact with the perceived sophistication of an analytic tool to jointly impact auditors’ anticipated evaluation from a supervisor and, in turn, their evidence assessment decisions when auditing a complex estimate. As such, the promotion of tool sophistication by audit firms can significantly affect the audit of complex estimates to a greater degree than what would be expected. Implications for audit theory and practice are discussed
Health Agents on The Move: Yanomami Agency and The Struggle For Wellbeing
Get PDFThis paper examines the sanitary and sociopolitical impact of the work of a Yanomami Health Agent in the Upper Ocamo area of the Venezuelan Amazonas State, and its relationship with the national health system, and argues that these build up into an interface of transformations. This is an interactional milieu composed by a dynamic mesh of incorporations and transformations working at different scales and in different directions: the State sanitary device incorporating a hinterland cluster of villages, a village at the center of this cluster incorporating the resources of the outside world, a young adult incorporating the potencies of outsiders and transforming into one of them, and other villagers entering the field of transformations
A Remote-Controllable Robotics Platform Based on the PIC16F88 Microcontroller
Get PDFThe goal of this mechatronics system design project is to create a simple robotics control and interface platform using a Microchip PIC processor. The intent is for this platform to be able to host a wide variety of simple sensors, displays, and outputs that can be carried around by its drive. The platform will be able to take in and interpret 2.4GHz remote-control signals.
For a novel twist on remote-control robotics, we have designed this robot to be encapsulated within an acrylic sphere. It is platformed on a 3D-printed chassis that holds upright its two geared DC motors that rest on the bottom of the sphere. At the midsection of the sphere sits the circular flat platform which carries the control board, sensors, and outputs. This setup can be seen in the final photograph of the project below. The robot’s spherical design offers multiple mobility and maneuverability advantages over common four-wheeled chassis designs. It can traverse wet, sandy, or rough terrain without risking getting any individual wheel or axle mechanism stuck, and it is able to orient itself in any direction by revolving around a singular point. The shell allows the robot to remain intact in otherwise difficult environments, protecting its own electronics and sensor payload from being submerged in liquids or damaged by force.
For this project, we specifically implemented a battery level indicator and a tilt sensor to warn the user of instability or control movement. A common issue with less expensive RC vehicles is the sudden loss of power due to the battery dying; a battery sensor would eliminate this issue by displaying a number zero to five to indicate the amount of charge left. An orientation warning would make a loud beep when the interior structure of the robot is no longer the right way up, which causes issues when trying to steer. This sensor can be configured by the robot’s processor to also control motion as a corrective aid. Additionally, the robot was designed to allow for easy customization once the base platform is completed
Changes in Provenance of the Galice Formation, Klamath Mountains, CA and OR: Implications for Evolution of the Cordillera
No full textThe Galice Formation, a metasedimentary unit in the Western Klamath Terranes, was deposited in the Late Jurassic before and during the Nevadan Orogeny. Detrital zircon U-Pb age data and Lu-Hf isotope data were collected from eleven samples from the Galice Formation in order to better understand the timing of deposition and provenance of the Galice Formation. These results can also be used to constrain the tectonic setting of the Nevadan Orogeny. The maximum depositional ages (MDA), which approximate the true depositional age of the samples due to the proximity of the Galice Basin to arc sources, range from 156.7 +/- 2.0 to 148.7 +/- 2.1 Ma, suggesting an approximately 10 million year period of deposition for the turbidite sequence of the Galice Formation. These MDAs also place deposition both before and during deformation associated with the Nevadan Orogeny. Samples with younger MDAs tend to have a higher percentage of Mesozoic grains and also have similar age spectra to Jurassic eolianite strata in the Sierran retroarc, whereas samples with older MDAs tend to have a higher percentage of Precambrian grains and are more similar to the Sierra Nevada pre-batholithic framework age spectra. The Lu-Hf isotopic data shows a similarity between the Mesozoic grains of the Galice Formation and the Klamath Mountains, Sierra Nevada pre-batholithic framework , and possibly the Insular superterrane. No evidence is found for Galice Formation provenance in northern sources such as the Blue Mountains. Altogether, the detrital zircon data suggests that the Galice Formation at first had more distal sources such as the Sierra Nevadan arc and retroarc region before topographic development of the nearby arcs to the east and west shifted the provenance to these more proximal sources while also allowing for influx from different inland sedimentary units such as the Jurassic eolianites. Combined with the fact that the data supplies no evidence vi for Galice Formation provenance in northern sources such as the Blue Mountains, the Galice likely sourced sediments from the east and southeast as well as proximal arcs
Defenses in Dispute: The Bureaucratic and Domestic Politics of the First Anti-Ballistic Missile Debate
Get PDFSince the dawn of the missile age in the mid-1940s, policymakers have grappled with the question of whether and how to defend against ballistic missiles. The saga of the rise of the United States’ first anti-ballistic missile system, known initially as Sentinel and later as Safeguard, and its subsequent demise after the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972, has been well cataloged by historians and strategic thinkers. Although many scholars present the story of this ABM system as the logical and inexorable consequence of the acceptance of deterrence theory and mutual vulnerability by the U.S and the Soviet Union, I argue it was instead the product of a remarkably dynamic and contingent process. The combination of intense interagency and intercabinet debates on ABM, synthesized with the peculiar domestic politics of the arms race, help explain this complex story. Examining disputes within the executive branch in the context of foreign policy and domestic politics can help shed light on this process and how this resolution came about, making extensive use of publicly available and declassified documents
How to Do Things with Magic: Yeat\u27s Incantatory Performatives
Get PDFIt is a generally accepted truth that W.B. Yeats viewed his poetry as a part of his magical practice. His occult involvements are well-documented--he was a known member of the Theosophists, as well as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Yeats\u27s written work also made this connection abundantly clear through essays, autobiographies, poems, and especially his metaphysical discourse, A Vision. However, Yeats scholars have done little more than accept this fact; that is, they have not analyzed how exactly Yeats viewed his poetry as incantation, or the possible mechanisms by which this relationship functions. Hence, I hope to fill that gap in the scholarship. I will first prove that Yeats did indeed view his poetry as incantation, before explaining one of his hallmark symbols from A Vision, the gyre. I will then use the gyre to explore how his epilogue to A Vision, All Souls\u27 Night, explores magical ideas without necessarily being outright incantation itself. I will furthermore demonstrate how All Souls\u27 Night plants the seeds for the incantation in a truly incantatory poem, Sailing to Byzantium. My thesis will culminate in my use of speech act theory as a tool to understand the mechanisms by which Yeats\u27s Sailing to Byzantium works as an incantation
Deep Learning in Sports Prediction
Get PDFSports prediction has always been an interesting problem in the entertainment industry. Many data scientists have come out different methods on this problem. We hope to see how well a neural network model can predict an individual game outcome and the final ranking on NBA data. We examined the possibility of different unbiased deep learning models can perform as well as other mathematics methods. We were also looking for what types of data are more influential for the models. Then, we can make some assumptions on our models and the other sports prediction methods
Cingulin Binds to the ZU5 Domain of Scaffolding Protein ZO-1 to Promote Its Extended Conformation, Stabilization, and Tight Junction Accumulation
Get PDFZonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), the major scaffolding protein of tight junctions (TJs), recruits the cytoskeleton-associated proteins cingulin (CGN) and paracingulin (CGNL1) to TJs by binding to their N-terminal ZO-1 interaction motif. The conformation of ZO-1 can be either folded or extended, depending on cytoskeletal tension and intramolecular and intermolecular interactions, and only ZO-1 in the extended conformation recruits the transcription factor DbpA to TJs. However, the sequences of ZO-1 that interact with CGN and CGNL1 and the role of TJ proteins in ZO-1 TJ assembly are not known. Here, we used glutathione-S-transferase pulldowns and immunofluorescence microscopy to show that CGN and CGNL1 bind to the C-terminal ZU5 domain of ZO-1 and that this domain is required for CGN and CGNL1 recruitment to TJs and to phase-separated ZO-1 condensates in cells. We show that KO of CGN, but not CGNL1, results in decreased accumulation of ZO-1 at TJs. Furthermore, ZO-1 lacking the ZU5 domain showed decreased accumulation at TJs, was detectable along lateral contacts, had a higher mobile fraction than full-length ZO-1 by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching analysis, and had a folded conformation, as determined by structured illumination microscopy of its N-terminal and C-terminal ends. The CGN-ZU5 interaction promotes the extended conformation of ZO-1, since binding of the CGN-ZO-1 interaction motif region to ZO-1 resulted in its interaction with DbpA in cells and in vitro. Together, these results show that binding of CGN to the ZU5 domain of ZO-1 promotes ZO-1 stabilization and accumulation at TJs by promoting its extended conformation
Zinc Sequestration By Human Calprotectin Facilitates Manganese Binding to the Bacterial Solute-Binding Proteins PsaA and MntC
No full textZinc is an essential transition metal nutrient for bacterial survival and growth but may become toxic when present at elevated levels. The Gram-positive bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae is sensitive to zinc poisoning, which results in growth inhibition and lower resistance to oxidative stress. Streptococcus pneumoniae has a relatively high manganese requirement, and zinc toxicity in this pathogen has been attributed to the coordination of Zn(II) at the Mn(II) site of the solute-binding protein (SBP) PsaA, which prevents Mn(II) uptake by the PsaABC transport system. In this work, we investigate the Zn(II)-binding properties of pneumococcal PsaA and staphylococcal MntC, a related SBP expressed by another Gram-positive bacterial pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, which contributes to Mn(II) uptake. X-ray absorption spectroscopic studies demonstrate that both SBPs harbor Zn(II) sites best described as five-coordinate, and metal-binding studies in solution show that both SBPs bind Zn(II) reversibly with sub-nanomolar affinities. Moreover, both SBPs exhibit a strong thermodynamic preference for Zn(II) ions, which readily displace bound Mn(II) ions from these proteins. We also evaluate the Zn(II) competition between these SBPs and the human S100 protein calprotectin (CP, S100A8/S100A9 oligomer), an abundant host-defense protein that is involved in the metal-withholding innate immune response. CP can sequester Zn(II) from PsaA and MntC, which facilitates Mn(II) binding to the SBPs. These results demonstrate that CP can inhibit Zn(II) poisoning of the SBPs and provide molecular insight into how S100 proteins may inadvertently benefit bacterial pathogens rather than the host