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Artificial intelligence and the changing costs and benefits of engaging in open and collaborative science
Get PDFDecoding lifespan secrets : the role of the gonad in C. elegans aging
Get PDFThe gonad has become a central organ for understanding aging in C. elegans, as removing the proliferating stem cells in the germline results in significant lifespan extension.Similarly, when starvation in late larval stages leads to the quiescence of germline stem cells the adult nematode enters reproductive diapause, associated with an extended lifespan. This review summarizes recent advancements in identifying the mechanisms behind gonadmediated lifespan extension, including comparisons with other nematodes and the role of lipid signaling and transcriptional changes. Given that the gonad also mediates lifespan regulation in other invertebrates and vertebrates, elucidating the underlying mechanisms may help to gain new insights into the mechanisms and evolution of aging
Attention-driven imitation in consumer reviews
Get PDFProduct reviews on e-commerce platforms can have a pronounced effect on consumers' decisions. Less is known, however, whether the reviews written by others can shape a person's own written opinion of a product. We hypothesized that people who compose reviews on digital storefronts will try to imitate successful reviews, such that their content will show similarity with other reviews displayed at the time of writing. More specifically, we predicted that reviews will be more semantically similar to the most successful, salient, and readily accessible reviews written by others. To investigate this hypothesis, we extracted over 3 million reviews from a major online distribution platform and traced the reviews that were displayed at the time when each review was being composed. Using word embeddings from a pre-trained language model, we quantified the semantic similarity between a given review and other reviews that were visible (or not) to a user. We found that reviewers imitate the most helpful reviews written by others, especially those that are visually salient. Their reviews, in turn, gather more helpfulness ratings in the future, leading to a cascade of similar reviews. Our findings suggest that the default sorting and display format of reviews on online platforms will have a pronounced effect on the style and content of new reviews
Kepler main-sequence solar-like stars : surface rotation and magnetic-activity evolution
Get PDFWhile the mission’s primary goal was focused on exoplanet detection and characterization, Kepler made and continues to make extraordinary advances in stellar physics. Stellar rotation and magnetic activity are no exceptions. Kepler allowed for these properties to be determined for tens of thousands of stars from the main sequence up to the red giant branch. From photometry, this can be achieved by investigating the brightness fluctuations due to active regions, which cause surface inhomogeneities, or through asteroseismology as oscillation modes are sensitive to rotation and magnetic fields. This review summarizes the rotation and magnetic activity properties of the single main-sequence solar-like stars within the Kepler field. We contextualize the Kepler sample by comparing it to known transitions in the stellar rotation and magnetic-activity evolution, such as the convergence to the rotation sequence (from the saturated to the unsaturated regime of magnetic activity) and the Vaughan-Preston gap. While reviewing the publicly available data, we also uncover one interesting finding related to the intermediate-rotation gap seen in Kepler and other surveys. We find evidence for this rotation gap in previous ground-based data for the X-ray luminosity. Understanding the complex evolution and interplay between rotation and magnetic activity in solar-like stars is crucial, as it sheds light on fundamental processes governing stellar evolution, including the evolution of our own Sun
From frying pan to fire : protest, war and the forging of a Belarusian nation
No full textThe mass street protests after Belarus’s 2020 presidential election failed to oust dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka. They nonetheless represented a political and national awakening of Belarusian society, with a level of popular engagement in politics unseen in Belarus during the preceding three decades. Eighteen months after the election crisis, Belarusians were plunged into a new crisis as their state provided a supporting role in Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. This article identifies the main causes of the 2020 protests and their relationship to Belarusian national identity. It assesses the state of the national awakening three years after the 2020 election in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s role in that war; asking whether Belarus is still sovereign and whether loss of sovereignty is fatal for Belarusian national identity. It argues that Lukashenka’s position remains highly precarious and that the national awakening hangs in the balance
Synthesis and functionalization of azetidine‐containing small macrocyclic peptides
Get PDFCyclic peptides are increasingly important structures in drugs but their development can be impeded by difficulties associated with their synthesis. Here, we introduce the 3-aminoazetidine (3-AAz) subunit as a new turn-inducing element for the efficient synthesis of small head-to-tail cyclic peptides. Greatly improved cyclizations of tetra-, penta- and hexapeptides (28 examples) under standard reaction conditions are achieved by introduction of this element within the linear peptide precursor. Post-cyclization deprotection of the amino acid side chains with strong acid is realized without degradation of the strained four-membered azetidine. An special feature of this chemistry is that further late-stage modification of the resultant macrocyclic peptides can be achieved via the 3-AAz unit. This is done by: (i) chemoselective deprotection and substitution at the azetidine nitrogen, or by (ii) a click-based approach employing a 2-propynyl carbamate on the azetidine nitrogen. In this way, a range of dye and biotin tagged macrocycles are readily produced. Structural insights gained by XRD analysis of a cyclic tetrapeptide indicate that the azetidine ring encourages access to the less stable, all-trans conformation. Moreover, introduction of a 3-AAz into a representative cyclohexapeptide improves stability towards proteases compared to the homodetic macrocycle
Mobile health biometrics to prescribe immediate remote physical activity for enhancing uptake to cardiac rehabilitation (MOTIVATE-CR+) : protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility trial
No full textIntroduction Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can reduce cardiovascular mortality and improve health-related quality of life. In the United Kingdom, patient uptake of CR remains low (52%), falling well short of the target in the 2019 National Health Service long-term plan (85%). Mobile health (mHealth) technologies, offering biometric data to patients and healthcare professionals, may bridge the gap between supervised exercise and physical activity advice, enabling patients to engage in regular long-term physically active lifestyles. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the feasibility of mHealth technology when incorporated into a structured home-based walking intervention, in people with recent myocardial infarction.
Methods and analysis This is a feasibility, assessor blinded, parallel group RCT. Participants will be allocated to either CR standard care (control group) or CR standard care+mHealth supported exercise counselling (mHealth intervention group). Feasibility outcomes will include the number of patients approached, screened and eligible; the percentage of patients who decline CR (including reasons for declining), agree to CR and consent to being part of the study; the percentage of patients who enrol in standard CR and reasons for drop out; and the percentage of participants who complete clinical, physical and psychosocial outcomes to identify a suitable primary outcome for a future definitive trial.
Ethics and dissemination The trial was approved in the UK by the Northwest—Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee (22/NW/0301) and is being conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international scientific meetings
Built to last? Material legacies of Italian colonialism
Get PDFThis essay discusses what is a colonial trace and what can be done with the material legacy of colonialism in the Italian cities. These questions have been asked to scholars, artists, curators, and activists: historians Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Hannes Obermair, visual artist Alessandra Ferrini, art historian and curator Viviana Gravano, writer Igiaba Scego, and two collectives, Resistenze in Cirenaica and Colletivo Tezeta. They discuss their practices and work, but address also more general issues – such as whether Italy is a decolonized country or not. Interviewees looked at specific cases – like the city of Bolzano or the statue of Indro Montanelli in Milan – and analysed different strategies to resignify monuments and street names. The debate around Italy’s colonial legacy, and in particular monuments and street names, is ongoing and unfolding; these interviews will contribute to frame the debate for the years to come
“A Spanish version of EastEnders” : a reception study of a telenovela subtitled using MT
Get PDFThis article presents the results of three AVT reception experiments with over 200 English-speaking participants who watched a 20-minute clip of a Mexican telenovela in three different translation modalities: human-translated (HT), post-edited (PT) and machine-translated (MT). Participants answered a questionnaire on narrative engagement, enjoyment, and translation reception of the subtitles. The results show that viewers have a higher engagement with PE than HT, but there is only a statistically significant difference when PE is compared to MT. When it comes to enjoyment, the differences are more pronounced, and viewers enjoy MT significantly less than PE and HT. Finally, in translation reception, the gap is even more pronounced between MT vs. PE and HT. However, the high HTER scores demonstrate that a substantial amount of edits are necessary to render the automatic MT subtitles publishable. It is not clear that results would be comparable were subtitlers not given sufficient time or remuneration for the post-editing task