ASU Scholarship Showcase

Recently the domestic aviation industry has been influenced by rapidly growing ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs). The pattern of airport markets served by ULCCs is incongruous with legacy carriers and low-cost airlines alike. Existing literature, however, is limited for North American ULCCs: research has only recently begun to identify them separately from mainstream low-cost carriers. This study sought to understand the market factors that influence ULCC service decisions. The relationship between ULCC operations and airport market factors was analyzed using three methods: mapping 2019 flight data for four ULCCs combined, two regression analyses to evaluate variables, and three case studies examining distinct scenarios through interviews with airport managers. Enplanement data were assembled for every domestic airport offering scheduled service in 2019. Independent variables were collected for each Part 139 airport. The first model estimated an ordinary least squares regression model to analyze ULCC enplanements. The second model estimated a binary logistic equation for presence of ULCC service. Case studies for Bellingham, Waco, and Lincoln were selected using compelling airport factors and relevant ULCC experience. Maps of ULCC enplanements revealed concentrations of operations on the East Coast. Both regression analyses showed strong relationships between population and non-ULCC enplanements (two measures of airport market size) and ULCC operations. A significant relationship also existed between tourism and enplanements. In the logit model, distance and competition variables were associated with ULCC presence. Case studies emphasized the importance of airport fees and competition in ULCC preferences, although aeronautical costs were generally not significant in the regressions.

Cities in the Global South face rapid urbanization challenges and often suffer an acute lack of infrastructure and governance capacities. Smart Cities Mission, in India, launched in 2015, aims to offer a novel approach for urban renewal of 100 cities following an area‐based development approach, where the use of ICT and digital technologies is particularly emphasized. This article presents a critical review of the design and implementation framework of this new urban renewal program across selected case‐study cities. The article examines the claims of the so‐called “smart cities” against actual urban transformation on‐ground and evaluates how “inclusive” and “sustainable” these developments are. We quantify the scale and coverage of the smart city urban renewal projects in the cities to highlight who the program includes and excludes. The article also presents a statistical analysis of the sectoral focus and budgetary allocations of the projects under the Smart Cities Mission to find an inherent bias in these smart city initiatives in terms of which types of development they promote and the ones it ignores. The findings indicate that a predominant emphasis on digital urban renewal of selected precincts and enclaves, branded as “smart cities,” leads to deepening social polarization and gentrification. The article offers crucial urban planning lessons for designing ICT‐driven urban renewal projects, while addressing critical questions around inclusion and sustainability in smart city ventures.`

Attitudes and habits are extremely resistant to change, but a disruption of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to bring long-term, massive societal changes. During the pandemic, people are being compelled to experience new ways of interacting, working, learning, shopping, traveling, and eating meals. Going forward, a critical question is whether these experiences will result in changed behaviors and preferences in the long term. This paper presents initial findings on the likelihood of long-term changes in telework, daily travel, restaurant patronage, and air travel based on survey data collected from adults in the United States in Spring 2020. These data suggest that a sizable fraction of the increase in telework and decreases in both business air travel and restaurant patronage are likely here to stay. As for daily travel modes, public transit may not fully recover its pre-pandemic ridership levels, but many of our respondents are planning to bike and walk more than they used to. These data reflect the responses of a sample that is higher income and more highly educated than the US population. The response of these particular groups to the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps especially important to understand, however, because their consumption patterns give them a large influence on many sectors of the economy.

Human protein diversity arises as a result of alternative splicing, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and posttranslational modifications. Because of these processes, each protein can exists as multiple variants in vivo. Tailored strategies are needed to study these protein variants and understand their role in health and disease. In this work we utilized quantitative mass spectrometric immunoassays to determine the protein variants concentration of beta-2-microglobulin, cystatin C, retinol binding protein, and transthyretin, in a population of 500 healthy individuals. Additionally, we determined the longitudinal concentration changes for the protein variants from four individuals over a 6 month period. Along with the native forms of the four proteins, 13 posttranslationally modified variants and 7 SNP-derived variants were detected and their concentration determined. Correlations of the variants concentration with geographical origin, gender, and age of the individuals were also examined. This work represents an important step toward building a catalog of protein variants concentrations and examining their longitudinal changes.

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are a multipotent cell population that is capable of nearly indefinite expansion and subsequent differentiation into the various neuronal and supporting cell types that comprise the CNS. However, current protocols for differentiating NPCs toward neuronal lineages result in a mixture of neurons from various regions of the CNS. In this study, we determined that endogenous WNT signaling is a primary contributor to the heterogeneity observed in NPC cultures and neuronal differentiation. Furthermore, exogenous manipulation of WNT signaling during neural differentiation, through either activation or inhibition, reduces this heterogeneity in NPC cultures, thereby promoting the formation of regionally homogeneous NPC and neuronal cultures. The ability to manipulate WNT signaling to generate regionally specific NPCs and neurons will be useful for studying human neural development and will greatly enhance the translational potential of hPSCs for neural-related therapies.

Cognitive theories in visual attention and perception, categorization, and memory often critically rely on concepts of similarity among objects, and empirically require measures of “sameness” among their stimuli. For instance, a researcher may require similarity estimates among multiple exemplars of a target category in visual search, or targets and lures in recognition memory. Quantifying similarity, however, is challenging when everyday items are the desired stimulus set, particularly when researchers require several different pictures from the same category. In this article, we document a new multidimensional scaling database with similarity ratings for 240 categories, each containing color photographs of 16–17 exemplar objects. We collected similarity ratings using the spatial arrangement method. Reports include: the multidimensional scaling solutions for each category, up to five dimensions, stress and fit measures, coordinate locations for each stimulus, and two new classifications. For each picture, we categorized the item's prototypicality, indexed by its proximity to other items in the space. We also classified pairs of images along a continuum of similarity, by assessing the overall arrangement of each MDS space. These similarity ratings will be useful to any researcher that wishes to control the similarity of experimental stimuli according to an objective quantification of “sameness.”

While expert groups often make recommendations on a range of non-controversial as well as controversial issues, little is known about how the level of expert consensus-the level of expert agreement-influences perceptions of the recommendations. This research illustrates that for non-controversial issues expert groups that exhibit high levels of agreement are more persuasive than expert groups that exhibit low levels of agreement. This effect is mediated by the perceived entitativity-the perceived cohesiveness or unification of the group-of the expert group. But for controversial issues, this effect is moderated by the perceivers' implicit assumptions about the group composition. When perceivers are provided no information about a group supporting the Affordable Care Act-a highly controversial piece of U.S. legislation that is divided by political party throughout the country-higher levels of agreement are less persuasive than lower levels of agreement because participants assume there were more democrats and fewer republicans in the group. But when explicitly told that the group was half republicans and half democrats, higher levels of agreement are more persuasive.

Proteins can exist as multiple proteoforms in vivo, as a result of alternative splicing and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as well as posttranslational processing. To address their clinical significance in a context of diagnostic information, proteoforms require a more in-depth analysis. Mass spectrometric immunoassays (MSIA) have been devised for studying structural diversity in human proteins. MSIA enables protein profiling in a simple and high-throughput manner, by combining the selectivity of targeted immunoassays, with the specificity of mass spectrometric detection. MSIA has been used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of single and multiple proteoforms, distinguishing between normal fluctuations and changes related to clinical conditions. This mini review offers an overview of the development and application of mass spectrometric immunoassays for clinical and population proteomics studies. Provided are examples of some recent developments, and also discussed are the trends and challenges in mass spectrometry-based immunoassays for the next-phase of clinical applications.

Introduction: Apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III) regulates triglyceride (TG) metabolism. In plasma, apoC-III exists in non-sialylated (apoC-III_0a without glycosylation and apoC-III[subscript 0b] with glycosylation), monosialylated (apoC-III₁) or disialylated (apoC-III₂) proteoforms. Our aim was to clarify the relationship between apoC-III sialylation proteoforms with fasting plasma TG concentrations.

Methods: In 204 non-diabetic adolescent participants, the relative abundance of apoC-III plasma proteoforms was measured using mass spectrometric immunoassay.

Results: Compared with the healthy weight subgroup (n = 16), the ratios of apoC-III_0a, apoC-III_0b, and apoC-III₁ to apoC-III₂ were significantly greater in overweight (n = 33) and obese participants (n = 155). These ratios were positively correlated with BMI z-scores and negatively correlated with measures of insulin sensitivity (S[subscript i]). The relationship of apoC-III₁ / apoC-III₂ with S_i persisted after adjusting for BMI (p = 0.02). Fasting TG was correlated with the ratio of apoC-III_0a / apoC-III₂ (r = 0.47, p<0.001), apoC-III_0b / apoC-III₂ (r = 0.41, p<0.001), apoC-III₁ / apoC-III₂ (r = 0.43, p<0.001). By examining apoC-III concentrations, the association of apoC-III proteoforms with TG was driven by apoC-III_0a (r = 0.57, p<0.001), apoC-III_0b (r = 0.56. p<0.001) and apoC-III₁ (r = 0.67, p<0.001), but not apoC-III₂ (r = 0.006, p = 0.9) concentrations, indicating that apoC-III relationship with plasma TG differed in apoC-III₂ compared with the other proteoforms.

Conclusion: We conclude that apoC-III_0a, apoC-III_0b, and apoC-III₁, but not apoC-III₂ appear to be under metabolic control and associate with fasting plasma TG. Measurement of apoC-III proteoforms can offer insights into the biology of TG metabolism in obesity.

Background: Medical and public health scientists are using evolution to devise new strategies to solve major health problems. But based on a 2003 survey, medical curricula may not adequately prepare physicians to evaluate and extend these advances. This study assessed the change in coverage of evolution in North American medical schools since 2003 and identified opportunities for enriching medical education.

Methods: In 2013, curriculum deans for all North American medical schools were invited to rate curricular coverage and perceived importance of 12 core principles, the extent of anticipated controversy from adding evolution, and the usefulness of 13 teaching resources. Differences between schools were assessed by Pearson’s chi-square test, Student’s t-test, and Spearman’s correlation. Open-ended questions sought insight into perceived barriers and benefits.

Results: Despite repeated follow-up, 60 schools (39%) responded to the survey. There was no evidence of sample bias. The three evolutionary principles rated most important were antibiotic resistance, environmental mismatch, and somatic selection in cancer. While importance and coverage of principles were correlated (r = 0.76, P < 0.01), coverage (at least moderate) lagged behind importance (at least moderate) by an average of 21% (SD = 6%). Compared to 2003, a range of evolutionary principles were covered by 4 to 74% more schools. Nearly half (48%) of responders anticipated igniting controversy at their medical school if they added evolution to their curriculum. The teaching resources ranked most useful were model test questions and answers, case studies, and model curricula for existing courses/rotations. Limited resources (faculty expertise) were cited as the major barrier to adding more evolution, but benefits included a deeper understanding and improved patient care.

Conclusion: North American medical schools have increased the evolution content in their curricula over the past decade. However, coverage is not commensurate with importance. At a few medical schools, anticipated controversy impedes teaching more evolution. Efforts to improve evolution education in medical schools should be directed toward boosting faculty expertise and crafting resources that can be easily integrated into existing curricula.