Title
Topic
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Santillana added to Atlas of Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists
Mauricio Santillana, a professor of both physics and electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University, has been added to the Atlas of Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists, hosted by the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. The atlas is described as “a grassroots effort developed to showcase the expertise, talents, and diversity of Hispanic and Latinx scientific faculty.” Santillana’s research focuses on modeling complex events — like disease outbreaks— through machine learning and network science.
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‘Cosmologically Consistent Analysis of Gravitational Waves From Hidden Sectors’
“Production of gravitational waves in the early Universe is discussed in a cosmologically consistent analysis within a first-order phase transition involving a hidden sector feebly coupled with the visible sector. Each sector resides in its own heat bath leading to a potential dependent on two temperatures and on two fields: one a standard model Higgs field and the other a scalar arising from a hidden sector 𝑈(1) gauge theory. A synchronous evolution of the hidden and visible sector temperatures is carried out from the reheat temperature down to the electroweak scale.” Find the paper and authors list in Physical Review D.
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Discovering the ‘Fundamentals of IoT Communication Technologies’
Rolando Herrero, program director of telecommunication networks and cyber-physical systems at Northeastern University, “presents a comprehensive resource of the Internet of Things and its networking and protocols, intended for classroom use,” according to the publisher’s webpage. The textbook, titled “Fundamentals of IoT Communication Technologies,” is based on a “popular class” that Herrero teaches, and the book includes examples, slides and “a ‘hands-on’ section where the topics discussed as theoretical content are built as stacks in the context of an IoT network emulator.”
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‘Native Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry of Near 1 MDa Non-Covalent GroEL/GroES/Substrate Protein Complexes’
“Protein complexes are essential for proteins’ folding and biological function. Currently, native analysis of large multimeric protein complexes remains challenging. Structural biology techniques are time-consuming and often cannot monitor the proteins’ dynamics in solution. Here, a capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE–MS) method is reported to characterize, under near-physiological conditions, the conformational rearrangements of ∽1 MDa GroEL upon complexation with binding partners involved in a protein folding cycle. … This study shows the CE–MS potential to provide information on binding stoichiometry and kinetics for various protein complexes.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Advanced Science.
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‘Prevalence and Correlates of Irritability Among U.S. Adults’
“This study aimed to characterize the prevalence of irritability among U.S. adults, and the extent to which it co-occurs with major depressive and anxious symptoms. A non-probability internet survey of individuals 18 and older in 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia was conducted between November 2, 2023, and January 8, 2024. … In linear regression models, irritability was greater among respondents who were female, younger, had lower levels of education and lower household income. Greater irritability was associated with likelihood of thoughts of suicide in logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic features.” Find the paper and authors list…
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‘Sophisticated Natural Products as Antibiotics’
“In this Review, we explore natural product antibiotics that do more than simply inhibit an active site of an essential enzyme. We review these compounds to provide inspiration for the design of much-needed new antibacterial agents. … Many of the compounds exhibit more than one notable feature, such as resistance evasion and target corruption. Understanding the surprising complexity of the best antimicrobial compounds provides a roadmap for developing novel compounds to address the antimicrobial resistance crisis by mining for new natural products and inspiring us to design similarly sophisticated antibiotics.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature.
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‘Changes in Cerebral Vascular Reactivity Following Mild Repetitive Head Injury in Awake Rats: Modeling the Human Experience’
“The changes in brain function in response to mild head injury are usually subtle and go undetected. Physiological biomarkers would aid in the early diagnosis of mild head injury. In this study we used hypercapnia to follow changes in cerebral vascular reactivity after repetitive mild head injury. … The changes in vascular reactivity were not uniform across the brain. The prefrontal cortex, somatosensory cortex and basal ganglia showed the hypothesized decrease in vascular reactivity while the cerebellum, thalamus, brainstem, and olfactory system showed an increase in BOLD signal to hypercapnia.”Find the paper and list of authors in Experimental Brain Research.
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‘Strategies to Optimize the Deployment of Roadway Maintenance Machines for Overnight Maintenance in Urban Rail Systems’
“This research investigates the effectiveness of several strategies to deploy roadway maintenance machines (RMMs) in preparation for overnight maintenance in rapid transit systems. Owing to the short windows of time available for maintenance activities in the overnight period (i.e., when revenue service is suspended), efficient deployment of RMMs is an important aspect of ensuring adequate productive time for crews at work locations. Four deployment strategies are investigated.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Transportation Research Record.
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Caracoglia to model new wind turbine designs
Luca Caracoglia, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received NSF funding for a project titled, “Modeling the Influence of Turbulence on Flow-Induced Instabilities of Large Flexible Structures With Innovative Applications in Wind Turbine Blades.” Caracoglia will be designing stochastic models to “promote safe design of next-generation offshore wind turbine structures by enabling slender and lighter blade designs,” the abstract states.
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Production of ‘How God Works’ will continue thanks to Templeton
Professor of psychology David DeSteno’s award-winning podcast, “How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality,” has received funding for another year of production from the Templeton Foundation.
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When is it all right to ReTIRE those old tires? Zhenyu Tian wants to find out
“In this project,” titled “ReTIRE: Research on Transformations, Implications, and Risks of End-of-life tires,” writes Zhenyu Tian, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, “the investigators study the environmental transformation, fate, and impact of end-of-life tires with advanced analytical methods. The results will help us understand the risk of current tire reuse practices (e.g., crumb rubber in artificial turf) and inform better waste management and product design.”
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‘Mechanomemory of Nucleoplasm and RNA Polymerase II After Chromatin Stretching by a Microinjected Magnetic Nanoparticle Force’
With this paper, professor of bioengineering Ning Wang, working with Ph.D. students Fazlur Rashid and Sadia Kabbo, demonstrates a process of “mechanomemory” in the chromatin of cells. “The mechanics of chromatin and nucleoplasm regulate gene transcription and nuclear function,” they write. “However, how the chromatin and nucleoplasm sense and respond to forces remains elusive.” Their results imply that “the viscoelastic behavior of the chromatin … provide[s] concrete evidence that the chromatin does not behave like a pure liquid, as concluded in one study, nor like a solid, as concluded in another study.” Find the full paper in Cell Reports.
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‘Strategic Behavior of Large Language Models and the Role of Game Structure Versus Contextual Framing’
“This paper investigates the strategic behavior of large language models (LLMs) across various game-theoretic settings, scrutinizing the interplay between game structure and contextual framing in decision-making. We focus our analysis on three advanced LLMs—GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and LLaMa-2—and how they navigate both the intrinsic aspects of different games and the nuances of their surrounding contexts. Our results highlight discernible patterns in each model’s strategic approach.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Scientific Reports.
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‘Lipid Nanoparticles Target Haematopoietic Stem Cells’
In this review, University Distinguished Professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemical engineering Mansoor Amiji, with co-author Dimitrios Bitounis, discuss “a novel class of non-viral lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based formulations for the in vivo delivery of genetic therapies to HSC [haematopoietic stem cells] in the bone marrow with the potential to treat blood disorders,” which have the potential to overcome clinical risks that “require removal of the patients own HSC, their curative modification, and transplantation back to the patient.”
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How the placebo effect masks cognitive training gains
In this book chapter, titled “Expectations and Placebo Effects in the Context of Cognitive Training,” professors of psychology Susanne Jaeggi and Aaron Seitz, with co-authors Jocelyn Parong and C. Shawn Green, discuss the difficulties of quantifying the improvements brought on by cognitive training, as “the curse of specificity” means one form of cognitive training will often not create improvement in other areas. “The very nature of cognitive training interventions,” they write, “makes placebo effects a possible concern.”
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Northeastern partners with National Science Foundation to launch regional research security center
Backed by a five-year $4.9 million investment from the NSF, the center will be an information clearinghouse for the research community.
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How Nackey Scripps Loeb became the Republican Party’s ‘Political Godmother’
Associate professor Meg Heckman’s book, “Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party” tells the story of “Newspaper publisher and GOP kingmaker Nackey Scripps Loeb,” according to the publisher’s webpage. Heckman’s examination “reveals Loeb as a force of nature, more than willing to wield her tremendous clout and able to convince the likes of Pat Buchanan to challenge a sitting president.”
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Teaching ophthalmology virtually: Two solutions
Tony Succar, lecturer in the College of Professional Studies, has co-authored a book chapter titled, “Digital Teaching and Learning: The Future of Ophthalmology Education,” which “highlights two digital teaching programs developed by” Succar’s working group, “implemented to act as a countermeasure to the restrictions placed in response to the pandemic,” the authors write. These programs “have proven that face-to-face learning is not required for all aspects of the ophthalmology medical student teaching,” and will continue to be employed post-pandemic. Find the chapter and full list of authors at “Digital Teaching, Learning and Assessment: The Way Forward,” or on Science Direct.
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‘Sweet and sensitive CE-MS method for quantitative characterization of native N-glycomes’
The Ivanov Lab has published a blog post detailing their “development of innovative sample preparation and nanoflow-based liquid phase separation techniques coupled with mass spectrometry for molecular (e.g., proteomic, glycomic) profiling of amount-limited biological and biomedically-relevant samples,” they write. “By minimizing the number of sample preparation steps and employing more efficient, low volume (nL-/pL-level)-based analytical techniques, we aim to detect, identify, structurally characterize, and quantify more molecular features (e.g., proteins and glycans) at lower sample amounts compared to conventional techniques.” Find the blog post and full list of authors in Springer Nature’s Chemistry Research Community.
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Serrador edits essays collecting latest research in ‘Mastering Project Leadership’
Pedro Serrador, a lecturer in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University, has edited “a collection of essays from key researchers in the field of project management who describe what they feel are the most impactful findings from research,” according to the publisher’s webpage. “Mastering Project Leadership: Insights from the Research” collects experts on topics as wide ranging as local stakeholder interactions with project managers to error, bias and how to leverage deadlines effectively.
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‘Methods for assessing and removing non-specific photoimmunotherapy damage in patient-derived tumor cell culture models’
“Tumor-targeted, activatable photoimmunotherapy (taPIT) has been shown to selectively destroy tumor in a metastatic mouse model. However, the photoimmunoconjugate (PIC) used for taPIT includes a small fraction of non-covalently associated (free) benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD), which leads to non-specific killing in vitro. Here, we report a new treatment protocol for patient-derived primary tumor cell cultures ultrasensitive to BPD photodynamic therapy (BPD-PDT). … The modifications in the protocol suggested here improve in vitro taPIT experiments that lack in vivo mechanisms of free BPD clearance (i.e., lymph and blood flow).”Find the paper and full list of authors at Photochemistry and Photobiology.
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Wegst presents primer on ‘Freeze casting’
“When solutions and slurries are directionally solidified, complex dynamics of solvent crystal growth and solvent templating determine the final hierarchical architecture of the freeze-cast material. With continuous X-ray tomoscopy, it is now possible to study in situ intricate and otherwise elusive ice crystal growth and solvent-templating phenomena. … The freeze casting process is attractive because the features of the final hierarchical material architecture … can be custom designed for a given application … [and] can be tailored for applications in, for example, biomedicine, environmental engineering, catalysis, power conversion, and energy generation and storage.Find the paper and full list of authors…
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‘Experimentally Probing the Effect of Confinement Geometry on Lipid Diffusion’
“The lateral mobility of molecules within the cell membrane is ultimately governed by the local environment of the membrane. … Here, we prepare model lipid systems on substrates patterned with confined domains of varying geometries constructed with different materials to explore the influences of physical boundary conditions and specific molecular interactions on diffusion. We demonstrate a platform that is capable of significantly altering and steering the long-range diffusion of lipids by using simple oxide deposition approaches, enabling us to systematically explore how confinement size and shape impact diffusion.”Find the paper and authors list in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.