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Into the fold: advances in understanding aPKC membrane dynamics
Get PDFAtypical protein kinase Cs (aPKCs) are part of the PKC family of protein kinases and are atypical because they don’t respond to the canonical PKC activators diacylglycerol (DAG) and Ca2+. They are central to the organization of polarized cells and are deregulated in several cancers. aPKC recruitment to the plasma membrane compartment is crucial to their encounter with substrates associated with polarizing functions. However, in contrast
with other PKCs, the mechanism by which atypical PKCs are recruited there has remained elusive until recently. Here, we bring aPKC into the fold, summarizing recent reports on the direct recruitment of aPKC to membranes, providing insight into seemingly discrepant findings and integrating them with existing literature
Contributions to reducing online gender harassment: social re-norming and appealing to empathy as tried-and-failed techniques
Get PDFInspired by similar methods that have been shown to be effective in reducing online racist harassment, we designed two tweets aimed at reducing online gender harassment. Our interventions were based on the principles of social re-norming and appealing to harassers’ empathy. In a sample of 666 Twitter users, we found that our intervention tweets were not successful at reducing the number of sexist slurs or users who post them either 7 days or 31 days after being sent. Our attempts also did not affect the valence, nor the arousal, of the subsequent tweets posted by our sample of Twitter users. We discuss the conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges associated with activist research aimed at reducing online gender harassment
Stable isotope analysis of carnivores from the Turkana Basin, Kenya: evidence for temporally-mixed fossil assemblages
Get PDFStable isotope palaeoecology of fossil mammals is a key research tool for understanding the environmental context of hominin evolution in the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa. Well studied mammal groups include bovids, suids, equids, proboscideans and primates, but to date there has been no in-depth study of modern and fossil carnivores. Here we produce an Africa-wide oxygen and carbon enamel isotope dataset for modern carnivores and compare it with fossil carnivore data sampled from the Plio-Pleistocene Omo Group of the Turkana Basin, Kenya. Comparison of modern carnivore carbon isotopes with satellite images of land cover indicates that carnivore δ13C is related to the proportion of woody cover in the local environment. Modern carnivore oxygen isotopes are strongly influenced by the δ18O of meteoric water, through drinking from standing water and through prey body fluids. Carbon isotope data from fossil carnivores shows close agreement with palaeovegetation reconstructions from δ13C of palaeosol carbonates from the same geological Members, and a similar long-term trend in δ13C values through time (4 Ma to 1 Ma), reflecting a gradual increase in the proportion of C4 grasses in the Turkana Basin. This increase in the δ13C of large carnivores is consistent with the evidence from other mammalian groups for an increase in the proportion of grazers compared to browsers and mixed feeders during this time interval. Two distinct trends within oxygen versus carbon isotope space indicates that the fossil carnivores lived during two distinct climatic regimes – one in which palaeo-lake Turkana was freshwater, and one in which the lake resembled its modern-day hyperalkaline state. These two climatic states most likely represent the end-members of precessionally-driven rainfall extremes over the Ethiopian Highlands. This indicates that each studied faunal assemblage from the Omo Group is a time- and climate-averaged palimpsest; this has significant implications for the interpretation of environmental signals and community palaeoecology derived from Turkana Basin fossil mammals, including early hominins
Service guarantee
No full textBook synopsis: The Encyclopedia of Services is a ground-breaking resource that offers a unique overview of what constitutes the main source of wealth and employment in our contemporary economies, namely services.
Divided into five thematic parts, the Encyclopedia thoroughly examines services from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. It provides a pedagogical state of the art review of 283 topics falling within the scope of the major streams of service studies, such as services in economic thought, services management and services innovation. Each entry describes, synthesizes and discusses the main dimensions of the given topic, highlighting key research areas and literature.
This Encyclopedia will be particularly invaluable for researchers and students in the economics, sociology, political science and management fields as well as practitioners in the private and public sector.
Key Features:
• First encyclopedia of service studies covering the key topics in the field
• Entries written by 241 leading scholars and practitioners from 39 different countries
• Fully supported by The European Association for Research on Services (RESER)
• Multi-disciplinary approach across the fields of economics, management, sociology, geography, but also political science and history
Tactile localisation on stretched skin
Get PDFThe ability to localise touch on the skin is an important aspect of tactile perception. As our limbs move, the skin stretches flexibly, and research has found that signals specifying stretch affect perception of limb posture. Skin stretch also distorts the relative spatial position of different locations on the skin, posing potential problems for tactile localisation. Here, we investigated the effects of skin stretch using an established test of tactile localisation on the hand. Twenty participants completed a tactile localisation task in no stretch and stretched conditions respectively after giving informed consent. The current study found a clear distal and radial bias in both the no stretch condition and the stretched condition. Indeed, the distal bias was even larger in the stretched condition than at baseline. Critically, however, this change in distal bias was entirely accounted for by changes in the actual location of stimulus as a result of skin stretch, with no corresponding change in the judged location. Thus, the somatosensory system appears to disregard stretch when calculating the location of tactile stimuli. These results mirror recent findings showing that tactile distance perception also fails to take skin stretch into account
Correcting for productivity growth misspecification: a local likelihood estimation in global banking
Get PDFDecomposing firm productivity has been challenging for some time. We propose a flexible functional form for total factor productivity that treats misspecification and endogeneity. The model also treats heteroscedasticity. Our productivity measure nests both the input distance function and output distance function. We provide details of a novel Local Likelihood estimation, a non-parametric technique, to estimate productivity which also has excellent finite-sample properties. In an empirical application, we measure bank productivity at the global level. Results show that productivity is correctly identified, and the flexibility of our methodology allows to estimate the impact of equity and nonperforming loans on bank productivity. Technology has positively contributed to productivity. However, nonperforming loans, bank risk-taking and raising capital have had the opposite effect
Sacha Polak’s Dirty God and the politics of authenticity
Get PDFDutch director Sacha Polak’s Dirty God (2019) is the first narrative film with a female lead whose scars are real, and arguably the first to tackle the assumption that scars (especially on a woman’s body) are shameful or tragic. Vicky Knight, who plays Jade, a young woman rebuilding her life after an acid attack, has talked about the revelation of seeing her body on screen after enduring years of abuse because of her appearance. Polak ‘saved my life’ she says, by enabling her to see her scarred body as beautiful, ‘a piece of art.’ Like any art form, film has the potential to be transformative, and in interviews both Knight and Polak have repeatedly spoken of their work in those terms. This article uses Dirty God to think about what is at stake in the dismantling of stereotypes and the reclamation of beauty – a goal shared by many disability rights campaigners. Made at a time when escalating cases of acid violence in London were making headlines around the world, Polak’s film prompts comparisons with Katie Piper’s Beautiful (2011) and other survivor memoirs. Privileging imperfection over repair and fragility over strength, it challenges existing portrayals of disfigurement and, in the process, offers a more radical understanding of beauty and authenticity
Three entangled foreign language learner emotions: anxiety, enjoyment and boredom
No full textThis is contribution on KEY CONCEPTS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS
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