Divergent Views on the Future of Automotive Retailing

A.T. KearneyOffice for the Study of Automotive Transportationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156402/1/Divergent of Views on the future of Automotive Retailing.pd

Gene Signatures of T-Cell Activation Can Serve as Predictors of Functionality for SARS-CoV-2-Specific T-Cell Receptors

The importance of T cells in controlling SARS-CoV-2 infections has been demonstrated widely, but insights into the quality of these responses are still limited due to technical challenges. Indeed, understanding the functionality of the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of a polyclonal antigen-specific population still requires the tedious work of T-cell cloning or TCR re-expression and subsequent characterization. In this work, we show that it is possible to discriminate highly functional and bystander TCRs based on gene signatures of T-cell activation induced by recent peptide stimulation. SARS-CoV-2-specific TCRs previously identified by cytokine release after peptide restimulation and subsequent single-cell RNA sequencing were re-expressed via CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing into a Jurkat-based reporter cell line system suitable for high-throughput screening. We could observe differences in SARS-CoV-2 epitope recognition as well as a wide range of functional avidities. By correlating these in vitro TCR engineered functional data with the transcriptomic profiles of the corresponding TCR-expressing parental T cells, we could validate that gene signatures of recent T-cell activation accurately identify and predict truly SARS-CoV-2-specific TCRs. In summary, this work paves the way for alternative approaches useful for the functional analysis of global antigen-specific TCR repertoires with largely improved throughput

Accommodation Downsizing

OverviewAging in place policies are a common response of governments to population aging (See “Aging in Place”). Typically, this involves increasing aged care services delivered to the home and home modifications to improve accessibility, thereby reducing (or postponing) transitions to more costly institutional aged care (See “Home Modifications”). This aligns with the desire of many older people to remain in their family homes for as long as possible (Venti and Wise 1990; Olsberg and Winters 2005; Croucher 2008; Judd et al. 2010; Porteus 2011; Fernald 2014; James 2016a). However, contradictory factors to “staying put” include the unsuitability/inaccessibility of the design of conventional housing stock; the increasing maintenance burden accompanying declining ability or sudden shocks of illness, disability, relationship breakdown, and partner’s death; claims of underutilization of housing by older people; and potential for reducing housing equity to support nonhousing consumption due to reduced post retirement income (See “Home Equity Conversions”). These constitute the main arguments for older people downsizing their accommodation to continue aging in place. However, downsizing among older people is not as prevalent or straightforward as this implies

Honesty in the Digital Age

Modern communication technologies enable efficient exchange of information, but often sacrifice direct human interaction inherent in more traditional forms of communication. This raises the question of whether the lack of personal interaction induces individuals to exploit informational asymmetries. We conducted two experiments with 866 subjects to examine how human versus machine interaction influences cheating for financial gain. We find that individuals cheat significantly more when they interact with a machine rather than a person, regardless of whether the machine is equipped with human features. When interacting with a human, individuals are particularly reluctant to report unlikely favorable outcomes, which is consistent with social image concerns. The second experiment shows that dishonest individuals prefer to interact with a machine when facing an opportunity to cheat. Our results suggest that human interaction is key to mitigating dishonest behavior and that self-selection into communication channels can be used to screen for dishonest people