Does advancing male age influence the expression levels and localisation patterns of phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ) in human sperm?

Socio-economic factors have led to an increasing trend for couples to delay parenthood. However, advancing age exerts detrimental effects upon gametes which can have serious consequences upon embryo viability. While such effects are well documented for the oocyte, relatively little is known with regard to the sperm. One fundamental role of sperm is to activate the oocyte at fertilisation, a process initiated by phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ), a sperm-specific protein. While PLCζ deficiency can lead to oocyte activation deficiency and infertility, it is currently unknown whether the expression or function of PLCζ is compromised by advancing male age. Here, we evaluate sperm motility and the proportion of sperm expressing PLCζ in 71 males (22–54 years; 44 fertile controls and 27 infertile patients), along with total levels and localisation patterns of PLCζ within the sperm head. Three different statistical approaches were deployed with male age considered both as a categorical and a continuous factor. While progressive motility was negatively correlated with male age, all three statistical models concurred that no PLCζ–related parameter was associated with male age, suggesting that advancing male age is unlikely to cause problems in terms of the sperm’s fundamental ability to activate an oocyt

Queer In AI: A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI

Queerness and queer people face an uncertain future in the face of ever more widely deployed and invasive artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies have caused numerous harms to queer people, including privacy violations, censoring and downranking queer content, exposing queer people and spaces to harassment by making them hypervisible, deadnaming and outing queer people. More broadly, they have violated core tenets of queerness by classifying and controlling queer identities. In response to this, the queer community in AI has organized Queer in AI, a global, decentralized, volunteer-run grassroots organization that employs intersectional and community-led participatory design to build an inclusive and equitable AI future. In this paper, we present Queer in AI as a case study for community-led participatory design in AI. We examine how participatory design and intersectional tenets started and shaped this community’s programs over the years. We discuss different challenges that emerged in the process, look at ways this organization has fallen short of operationalizing participatory and intersectional principles, and then assess the organization’s impact. Queer in AI provides important lessons and insights for practitioners and theorists of participatory methods broadly through its rejection of hierarchy in favor of decentralization, success at building aid and programs by and for the queer community, and effort to change actors and institutions outside of the queer community. Finally, we theorize how communities like Queer in AI contribute to the participatory design in AI more broadly by fostering cultures of participation in AI, welcoming and empowering marginalized participants, critiquing poor or exploitative participatory practices, and bringing participation to institutions outside of individual research projects. Queer in AI’s work serves as a case study of grassroots activism and participatory methods within AI, demonstrating the potential of community-led participatory methods and intersectional praxis, while also providing challenges, case studies, and nuanced insights to researchers developing and using participatory methods

Exploring the Italian erasmus agreements by a network analysis perspective

Student exchange program called Erasmus determines a large network of European higher education institutions. As Italy is among the most important stakeholders in Erasmus program, paper analyses student mobility to/from Italian higher education institutions. Aim of the paper is to present preliminary results about the underlying structure of the network. In order to analyze this large network, we combine advanced network analytical and graphical tools tailored for the analysis of 2-mode networks. In particular we consider the multiplication of 2-mode networks and the multiple correspondence analysis (and its extensions). Both methods allow the researcher to include into the analysis attributes of the nodes and other information, such as the disciplines related to the agreements, and to consider both the country level and the single institution level

Hotel Branding Exposed: A Content Analysis of Related Organisational Values

Background/Purpose: This paper explores how organisational values can help to understand the interlinks of hotel brands and their hotel rating. The study assumes that the importance of organisational values in the service sector represents one of the key components of both growth and development of an organisation. Methods: Conceptual content analysis was used on the dataset of organisational values found on websites of the top 100 European hotel brands. Advanced network analytic procedures were applied to identify clustered dimensions of organisational values among various hotel brands. Results: Results identified shared organisational values among hotel brands clustered into four predominant dimensions: entrepreneurial, stakeholders, moral, and tradition. The study confirmed wide content variability of organisational values within the hotel brand industry. Conclusion: The cluster analysis identified clusters of the most important words from values statements, concluding that hotel brands highly value "entrepreneurial"and "ethical"clusters. The island analysis approach on hotel brands' level also reveals that organisational values in this sector are determined by many factors, including the scale and market positioning. Our study provides theoretical and practical implications to hotel brand strategists in order to better understand their current and desired sector position