30472 research outputs found
Sort by
Proteins DotY and DotZ modulate the dynamics and localization of the type IVB coupling complex of Legionella pneumophila
Get PDFLegionella pneumophila is an opportunistic pathogen infecting alveolar macrophages and protozoa species. Legionella utilizes a Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) to translocate over 300 effector proteins into its host cell. In a recent study, we have isolated and solved the cryo-EM structure of the Type IV Coupling Complex (T4CC), a large cytoplasmic determinant associated with the inner membrane that recruits effector proteins for delivery to the T4SS for translocation. The T4CC is composed of a DotLMNYZ hetero-pentameric core from which the flexible IcmSW module flexibly protrudes. The DotY and DotZ proteins were newly reported members of this complex and their role remained elusive. In this study, we observed the effect of deleting DotY and DotZ on T4CC stability and localization. Furthermore, we found these two proteins are co-dependent, whereby the deletion of DotY resulted in DotZ absence from the coupling complex, and vice versa. Additional cryo-EM data analysis revealed the dynamic movement of the IcmSW module is modified by the DotY/Z proteins. We therefore determined the likely function of DotY and DotZ and revealed their importance on T4CC function
Classroom environment and willingness to communicate in English: the mediating role of emotions experienced by university students in China
Get PDFThe present study examines the direct and indirect relationships between classroom environment (CE), L2 (second/foreign language) learner emotions (i.e. enjoyment, anxiety and boredom), and their willingness to communicate (WTC) in classes for English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants were 2,268 university students in China. Pearson correlation analyses showed significant correlations between CE, L2 emotions, and WTC, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. In addition, the three L2 emotions were found to mediate the relationship between CE and WTC in parallel, with enjoyment having the largest mediating effect, followed by anxiety and boredom. The findings offer insights into how to improve students’ WTC in an L2
Explanations from Deep Reinforcement Learning using episodic memories
Get PDFDeep Reinforcement Learning (RL) involves the use of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to make sequential
decisions in order to maximize reward. For many tasks the resulting sequence of actions produced by
a Deep RL policy can be long and difficult to understand for humans. A crucial component of human
explanations is selectivity, whereby only key decisions and causes are recounted. Imbuing Deep RL
agents with such an ability would make their resulting policies easier to understand from a human
perspective and generate a concise set of instructions to aid the learning of future agents. To this end
we use a Deep RL agent with an episodic memory system to identify and recount key decisions during
policy execution. We show that these decisions form a short, human readable explanation that can also
be used to speed up the learning of naive Deep RL agents
Plea to give Covid shielders their life back with new drug
No full textAn article in The Times by Kat Lay with comment from Martin Paul Ev
Joint Shapley Values: a measure of joint feature importance
Get PDFThe Shapley value is one of the most widely used measures of feature importance partly as it measures a feature's average effect on a model's prediction. We introduce joint Shapley values, which directly extend Shapley's axioms and intuitions: joint Shapley values measure a set of features' average effect on a model's prediction. We prove the uniqueness of joint Shapley values, for any order of explanation. Results for games show that joint Shapley values present different insights from existing interaction indices, which assess the effect of a feature within a set of features. The joint Shapley values seem to provide sensible results in ML attribution problems. With binary features, we present a presence-adjusted global value that is more consistent with local intuitions than the usual approach
Being ‘good enough’: perfectionism and well-being in social workers
Get PDFPerfectionism refers to a tendency to set unrealistically high standards for oneself and others.
Although often seen positively, perfectionism can threaten health, relationships and performance. This
study examined the effects of three types of maladaptive perfectionism on burnout in 294 UK social
workers: self-oriented (having excessively high standards for oneself), other-oriented (having excessively
high expectations of others) and socially prescribed (perceiving external pressure to excel). In line with
previous research, we predicted that socially prescribed perfectionism would have particularly powerful
effects on well-being, but significant relationships with self and other-oriented perfectionism were also
expected. We also examined whether maladaptive perfectionism intensified the negative impact of workrelated emotional demands on burnout. Significant positive relationships were found between socially
prescribed and other-oriented perfectionism and burnout. A higher level of socially prescribed
perfectionism was found than self and other-oriented and its relationship with burnout was particularly
strong. We found no evidence, however, that perfectionism was an additional risk factor for burnout
when emotional demands were high. Early career social workers were found to be at greater risk of
dysfunctional perfectionism and burnout. The implications of the findings for the well-being of social
workers are considered and potential interventions outlined to reduce maladaptive perfectionism
Between Moscow, Warsaw, and the Holy See: the case of Father Andrzej Fedukowicz amidst the early Soviet anti-Catholic campaign
Get PDFThis article offers a micro-history of Soviet anti-religious actions during the mid-1920s through a reconstruction of the investigation case of Father Andrzej Fedukowicz and his forced collaboration with the Soviet secret services. In November 1924 Fedukowicz was forced to sign a letter to Pope Pius XI and a year later committed suicide to avoid humiliation caused by his actions. This investigation reveals how elaborate the Soviet secret services’ techniques for dealing with uncontrolled religious allegiances had become during a more tolerant ‘religious NEP’, the period which came to replace the overly repressive measures of the civil war period. The article aims to challenge the conventional impression of powerful and effective Soviet secret services. Detailed analysis of the process of fabrication used by the secret services shows how often rudimentary methods of the secret police could easily threaten the success of the entire operation. In this regard, the limited results the secret services had achieved by relying on individual assets led to toughening of mass repression and a more aggressive anti-religious campaign after 1929
Revisiting the Great Ratios Hypothesis
Get PDFThe idea that certain economic variables are roughly constant in the long-run is an old one. Kaldor described them as stylized facts, whereas Klein and Kosobud labelled them great ratios. While such ratios are widely adopted in theoretical models in economics as conditions for balanced growth, arbitrage or solvency, the empirical literature has tended to find little evidence for them. We argue that this outcome could be due to episodic failure of cointegration, possible two-way causality between the variables in the ratios, and cross-country error dependence due to latent factors. We propose a new system pooled mean group estimator (SPMG) to deal with these features. Using this new panel estimator and a dataset spanning almost one and half centuries and seventeen countries, we find support for five out of the seven great ratios that we consider. Extensive Monte Carlo experiments also show that the SPMG estimator with bootstrapped confidence intervals stands out as the only estimator with satisfactory small sample properties
Rethinking advertising as paratextual communication
No full textBook synopsis: Providing new insights into the textual and paratextual character of brands and advertising, this innovative book showcases an extensive selection of vivid and topical case examples that assist the practical understanding of advertising paratexts.
Chris Hackley and Rungpaka Amy Hackley draw on many examples of creative advertisements to illustrate the key features of paratextual advertising and all types of brand communication, practice, strategy and research. The book examines the idea of an advertisement as something that is read and interpreted as a text by an audience, drawing on some of the pioneering research literature that introduced literary forms of analysis into business, management and related fields of scholarship. The authors utilise ideas from literary theory to examine how advertising can be understood, as well as consider semiotic and anthropological perspectives on advertising and digital media.
Aiming to change the way advertising is understood by students, scholars, and by media and management professionals, this book will be a valuable resource for those with an interest in advertising and promotion, marketing, communication, business management, and branding
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Birkbeck Institutional Research Online? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!