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The DesignSafe [1] portal is a web-based application created to facilitate researchers in the natural hazards community, providing data storage, computational resources, and publication pipelines to its users. With partners such as the RAPID response field reconnaissance teams who collect data immediately after a disaster event, the geospatial component of the data is essential information needed in subsequent analysis. Storing, searching, and visualizing this geospatial information has subsequently become a need for the DesignSafe and natural hazards community. A typical field reconnaissance mission can generate many gigabytes of geotagged images, videos and point cloud datasets. To integrate these data with the DesignSafe platform, we have developed a new set of RESTful APIs and a single page application to store, query and visualize these datasets. As one of the requirements for these tools is tight integration with the existing DesignSafe platform, which is built using Tapis [2] APIs, we have implemented the GeoAPI as a separate microservice in the Tapis v2 platform. This design allows us to easily utilize the existing data storage and user management tools built into DesignSafe. Users can access their existing data that is shared with their colleagues and already stored on the DesignSafe platform. Similarly, by utilizing the authentication services in Tapis, users can access these services with a single account. The backend has been developed using Python and the Flask framework. Application data is stored in a Postgres database with the PostGIS extension providing geospatial indexing. We have leveraged open-source libraries in the application such as GDAL, PDAL, Laspy, GeoPandas, and Shapely. Reconnaissance teams often use Lidar to collect point cloud data of structures damaged during a natural hazard event. These datasets alone can grow to many hundreds of GB and require additional processing. We use Celery to asynchronously process these data with Potree [3] to visualize them in the browser. Static assets such as images and videos are saved into a Ceph filesystem and are served directly by a Nginx proxy for performance. Maps can be automatically generated from data already in DesignSafe and asynchronously updated when new data is added to the storage system. The application is deployed into a Kubernetes cluster at TACC. A general architecture diagram is shown in figure 1. To visualize these datasets, we have created Hazmapper 2.0, a single page web application. This application was written in TypeScript using the Angular framework and Leaflet libraries. Additionally, we use an auto generated client library Ng-Tapis [4] to interact with the Tapis APIs. By doing so, we can utilize the API directly from the browser without the need for a separate backend application. External map tiles can be imported through a searchable interface using QuickMapServices (QMS) APIs [5]. The decoupled backend architecture allows us to have multiple user interfaces that are specialized for different end-user needs. One such example is the Taggit [6] application from Designsafe researchers. Separate from Hazmapper, this application allows for tagging and classification of georeferenced images.

The challenges in building science gateways are as varied as the problems they seek to solve, and there is no guarantee that the obstacles of tomorrow will look anything like the challenges of today. To meet the ever-changing needs of researchers, gateways must be rapidly deployable, easy to customize, and yet consistent enough that researchers can intuitively understand and use them. At Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), a variety of science gateways are used by researchers to access TACC’s computing resources, manage data and collaborate with other researchers. First generation portals were deployed directly to a virtual machine and suffered from a slew of issues over time such as package conflicts, difficulties in allowing for customization and brittle deployments caused by VM upgrades (e.g security updates). To address these challenges, the services of science gateways - such as a user guide, content management system (CMS), dashboard and other applications - were separated into Docker containers hosting distinct services. We then developed a Docker container-based deployment framework called Camino to facilitate the deployment [1]. The Camino framework employs configuration settings stored in a repository to facilitate easy, transparent and reproducible deployments. With this approach, developers can easily customize and deploy upgrades at-will to individual containers, meeting the rapidly evolving needs of PIs and stakeholders. Camino is currently used to deploy and manage a multitude of scientific gateways at TACC. As an example, these gateways are typically centered around our core science gateway, a Django/React application called Core-Portal [2] which provides a dashboard to HPC job access, data access, and collaboration tools, and runs in its own isolated container. Join us for this lightning talk where we will share the tools, strategies, and real-world solutions we are building now for the challenges of tomorrow. Whether the needs require a science gateway for documentation, or one that can interface with storage and HPC resources, come learn about the tooling and strategies we use to deliver customizable on-demand gateways. We will present the tech we use and describe the strategies and software design philosophies we are implementing to generate composable, extendable gateways that can deliver everything from full-fledged multi-service solutions to a-la-carte style service selection.

In the following article, I argue that speculative realism offers intercultural researchers heuristics to observe intercultural spaces without having to pay exclusive attention to the relationships present within those spaces. In other words, intercultural spaces can be considered independent of the researcher’s mind, because they are co-created by intercultural researchers (Cummings, 2014, p. 129). Following Gabriel (2014), perspectives on intercultural spaces are just as real as the spaces themselves. It is intellectually unproductive, however, to compile a list of all possible perspectives on an intercultural space to know what it truly is, which is what the local only approach to intercultural research tends to presuppose. The list of all perspectives will not grant us access to the thing itself, despite said perspectives being real, because the space itself withdraws from our ability to access it fully (Gabriel, 2013, p. 126; Harman, 2009, p. 135). While not explicitly referencing this concept of withdrawal, Healy (2013) contends that the common schemes used to understand or translate another culture are inadequate because the contents generated from finding similarities with another culture do not guarantee complete understanding (pp. 272-273). In short, though translation enables the translated, in whatever mode, to appear in a context that is useful for the intercultural researcher, this appearance is always highly contingent.

CD70-mediated stimulation of CD27 is an important cofactor of CD4(+) T-cell licensed dendritic cells (DCs). However, it is unclear how CD70-mediated stimulation of T cells is integrated with signals that emanate from signal 3 pathways, such as type-1 interferon (IFN-1) and IL-12. We find that while stimulation of CD27 in isolation drives weak Eomesodermin(hi) T-bet(lo) CD8(+) T-cell responses to OVA immunization, profound synergistic expansion is achieved by cotargeting TLR. This cooperativity can substantially boost antiviral CD8(+) T-cell responses during acute infection. Concomitant stimulation of TLR significantly increases per cell IFN-γ production and the proportion of the population with characteristics of short-lived effector cells, yet also promotes the ability to form long-lived memory. Notably, while IFN-1 contributes to the expression of CD70 on DCs, the synergy between CD27 and TLR stimulation is dependent upon IFN-1's effect directly on CD8(+) T cells, and is associated with the increased expression of T-bet in T cells. Surprisingly, we find that IL-12 fails to synergize with CD27 stimulation to promote CD8(+) T-cell expansion, despite its capacity to drive effector CD8(+) T-cell differentiation. Together, these data identify complex interactions between signal 3 and costimulatory pathways, and identify opportunities to influence the differentiation of CD8(+) T-cell responses.

This thesis contributes to the scholarly understanding of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah and the role these Muslim organisations perform in the political socialisation of Islam through their affiliated pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). The study has a regional focus, concentrating on two case studies, both in Lamongan, East Java; Pesantren Sunan Drajat represents the NU pesantren system, and Pesantren Karangasem portraying the Muhammadiyah version of pesantren. Bourdieu’s concepts regarding habitus, field, symbolic capital, symbolic power, and symbolic violence are used to examine the pesantren system and the way it reproduces socio-religious identity through the values that santri (students) acquire. Moreover, this study looks at how pesantren and their kyai (headmasters) have influenced the political culture of the umat (religious community). Participant observation provided a detailed insight into the pesantren system, which was complemented with empirical data from election results and a survey to assess the voting habits of Lamongan residents. The development of political Islam in Lamongan is tied to the history of Islam and the strong pesantren culture in the district. This resulted in the popularity of the Islamic political parties and parties that promote Muslim identity, including Masyumi and the NU party at the 1955 general election; the United Development Party (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan, PPP) during the Suharto regime (1966-1998); and the National Awakening Party (Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa, PKB) and National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional, PAN) in the post-Suharto era. Pesantren Sunan Drajat educates its santri to be obedient, and its headmaster demands the community faithful follow his guidance in supporting political candidates that defend the interests of NU. Pesantren Karangasem on the other hand teaches its santri to think critically, but the school’s educators encourage their followers to support cadres that represent the Muhammadiyah constituency. Although people consider the opinions of their local kyai, people are not subservient to their political instructions. Despite this, NU and Muhammadiyah identity remains a salient influence on voters in Lamongan. However, political disunity among NU figures has increased the electoral appeal of the Muhammadiyah candidates, particularly in elections for district head (pemilihan kepala daerah, Pilkada).