What is fair enough? Reconciling complementors’ needs for fairness management on digital platforms

Digital platforms (DPs) provide individuals with alternative opportunities for earning incomes, attracting skyrocketing individuals to work as DP complementors. This gives rise to the superior power of DP owners by which complementors can be treated unfairly while they are vulnerable to seeking redress as they are legally autonomous from the underlying DPs. Unfair DP treatment can threaten complementors’ survival and be detrimental to the DP’s long-term development. Yet, there is a lack of a holistic understanding of the fairness perceived by DP complementors and their fairness needs can be addressed by DP owners. To address these gaps, we conducted a case study of complementors on content platforms (i.e., content creators) by accounting for their perceptions of DP fairness. Our study contributes to the DP fairness literature by 1) generating a holistic understanding of the DP fairness perceived by complementors, and 2) developing fairness-addressing actions that can be adopted by DPs

Correlations between Elastic, Calorimetric, and Polar Properties of Ferroelectric PbSc0.5Ta0.5O3 (PST)

Calorimetric, elastic, and polar properties of ferrolectric lead scandium tantalate PbSc0.5Ta0.5O3 (PST) with 65% cation order have been investigated in the vicinity of the paraelectric-ferroelectric transition at Ttrans = 295K. Comparison of temperature dependencies of the excess specific heat and elastic properties indicate that both anomalies stem from ther- mal fluctuations of order parameters in three dimensions. These fluctuations are consistent with tweed microstructure. This transition is driven by several coupled thermodynamic order parameters, as evidenced by a strongly non-linear scaling of the excess entropy with the squared ferroelectric polarization.National Natural Science Foundation of China (51850410520, 51320105014 and 51621063

Estimating carbon dioxide residence time scales through noble gas and stable isotope diffusion profiles

The study of natural carbon dioxide reservoirs provides fundamental insight into processes involved in carbon capture and storage. However, the calculations of process rates such as dissolution of CO2 into formation water remain uncertain due to indirectly determined ages of the CO2 influx. The proposed ages for the Bravo Dome gas field in New Mexico, USA, vary from 56 ka to 1.5 Ma. Here we demonstrate that residence times can be estimated from simple modeling of noble gas and stable isotope diffusion profiles from the gas-water contact through the gas column. The Bravo Dome gas field shows a gradient in noble gas concentrations and isotopic ratios from east to west across the 70-km-wide field. A mantle-like end member with a 3He/4He (R/RA) ratio of up to 4.7 is found in the west in contrast to a groundwater end member with high concentrations of air- and crustal-derived noble gases in the east. The air- and crustal-derived noble gases decrease gradually toward the west. Stable isotope compositions (C and O) also vary across the field. Diffusion modeling of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and δ13C data yield residence times for the CO2 between 14.1 ± 0.2 ka and 16.9 +1.1/–0.5 ka. This is far less than the previous estimates of 1.2–1.5 Ma based on apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology, leading to a dissolution rate of 29,900 +11,800/–10,700 t/a to 35,900 ± 12,300 t/a, implying that 28% of the total emplaced CO2 dissolved. This new method can be applied to a wide variety of gas fields with variation in the concentration of groundwater-derived noble gases and allow a better assessment of the time scale of other diffusive fluid-fluid interactions

Selective notifications based on message priority determination

Users of computing devices, e.g., smartphones, wearables, tablets, personal computers, etc. that choose to be notified about incoming messages, e.g., email are often overwhelmed with notifications. Currently, there is no differentiation between notifications for high priority and low priority messages. Too many notifications can overwhelm or distract users. The techniques of this disclosure selectively provide notifications about email messages that are determined to be of priority or importance. The techniques utilize a trained machine-learning model that determines notification thresholds based on user preferences and user-permitted factors. Implementation of these techniques can reduce interruptions and distractions

Heme catabolism mediated by heme oxygenase in uninfected interstitial cells enables efficient symbiotic nitrogen fixation in Lotus japonicus nodules

18 Pags.- 8 Figs. © 2023 The Authors. New Phytologist.Legume nodules produce large quantities of heme required for the synthesis of leghemoglobin (Lb) and other hemoproteins. Despite the crucial function of Lb in nitrogen fixation and the toxicity of free heme, the mechanisms of heme homeostasis remain elusive. Biochemical, cellular, and genetic approaches were used to study the role of heme oxygenases (HOs) in heme degradation in the model legume Lotus japonicus. Heme and biliverdin were quantified and localized, HOs were characterized, and knockout LORE1 and CRISPR/Cas9 mutants for LjHO1 were generated and phenotyped. We show that LjHO1, but not the LjHO2 isoform, is responsible for heme catabolism in nodules and identify biliverdin as the in vivo product of the enzyme in senescing green nodules. Spatiotemporal expression analysis revealed that LjHO1 expression and biliverdin production are restricted to the plastids of uninfected interstitial cells. The nodules of ho1 mutants showed decreased nitrogen fixation, and the development of brown, rather than green, nodules during senescence. Increased superoxide production was observed in ho1 nodules, underscoring the importance of LjHO1 in antioxidant defense. We conclude that LjHO1 plays an essential role in degradation of Lb heme, uncovering a novel function of nodule plastids and uninfected interstitial cells in nitrogen fixation.This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2021YFA0910800), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870220), the Foundation of Hubei Hongshan Laboratory (2022hszd014), HZAU-AGIS Cooperation Fund (SZYJY2022005), and MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 of Spain (grant PID2020-113985GB-I00).Peer reviewe

Broken symmetry and the variation of critical properties in the phase behaviour of supramolecular rhombus tilings

The degree of randomness, or partial order, present in two-dimensional supramolecular arrays of isophthalate tetracarboxylic acids is shown to vary due to subtle chemical changes such as the choice of solvent or small differences in molecular dimensions. This variation may be quantified using an order parameter and reveals a novel phase behaviour including random tiling with varying critical properties as well as ordered phases dominated by either parallel or non-parallel alignment of neighbouring molecules, consistent with long-standing theoretical studies. The balance between order and randomness is driven by small differences in the intermolecular interaction energies, which we show, using numerical simulations, can be related to the measured order parameter. Significant variations occur even when the energy difference is much less than the thermal energy highlighting the delicate balance between entropic and energetic effects in complex self-assembly processes

Magnetically Driven Micro and Nanorobots

Manipulation and navigation of micro and nanoswimmers in different fluid environments can be achieved by chemicals, external fields, or even motile cells. Many researchers have selected magnetic fields as the active external actuation source based on the advantageous features of this actuation strategy such as remote and spatiotemporal control, fuel-free, high degree of reconfigurability, programmability, recyclability, and versatility. This review introduces fundamental concepts and advantages of magnetic micro/nanorobots (termed here as "MagRobots") as well as basic knowledge of magnetic fields and magnetic materials, setups for magnetic manipulation, magnetic field configurations, and symmetry-breaking strategies for effective movement. These concepts are discussed to describe the interactions between micro/nanorobots and magnetic fields. Actuation mechanisms of flagella-inspired MagRobots (i.e., corkscrew-like motion and traveling-wave locomotion/ciliary stroke motion) and surface walkers (i.e., surface-assisted motion), applications of magnetic fields in other propulsion approaches, and magnetic stimulation of micro/nanorobots beyond motion are provided followed by fabrication techniques for (quasi)spherical, helical, flexible, wire-like, and biohybrid MagRobots. Applications of MagRobots in targeted drug/gene delivery, cell manipulation, minimally invasive surgery, biopsy, biofilm disruption/eradication, imaging-guided delivery/therapy/surgery, pollution removal for environmental remediation, and (bio)sensing are also reviewed. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives for the development of magnetically powered miniaturized motors are discussed

The Role of PKR/eIF2α Signaling Pathway in Prognosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

In this study, we investigated whether PKR protein expression is correlated with mRNA levels and also evaluated molecular biomarkers that are associated with PKR, such as phosphorylated PKR (p-PKR) and phosphorylated eIF2α (p-eIF2α).We determined the levels of PKR protein expression and mRNA in 36 fresh primary lung tumor tissues by using Western blot analysis and real-time reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR), respectively. We used tissue microarrays for immunohistochemical evaluation of the expression of p-PKR and p-eIF2α proteins. We demonstrated that PKR mRNA levels are significantly correlated with PKR protein levels (Spearman's rho = 0.55, p<0.001), suggesting that PKR protein levels in tumor samples are regulated by PKR mRNA. We also observed that the patients with high p-PKR or p-eIF2α expression had a significantly longer median survival than those with little or no p-PKR or p-eIF2α expression (p = 0.03 and p = 0.032, respectively). We further evaluated the prognostic effect of combined expression of p-PKR plus PKR and p-eIF2α plus PKR and found that both combinations were strong independent prognostic markers for overall patient survival on stage I and all stage patients.Our findings suggest that PKR protein expression may controlled by transcription level. Combined expression levels of PKR and p-PKR or p-eIF2α can be new markers for predicting the prognosis of patients with NSCLC

The THO Complex Regulates Pluripotency Gene mRNA Export and Controls Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Somatic Cell Reprogramming

Embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal and differentiation are governed by a broad-ranging regulatory network. Although the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved have been investigated extensively, post-transcriptional regulation is still poorly understood. Here we describe a critical role of the THO complex in ESC self-renewal and differentiation. We show that THO preferentially interacts with pluripotency gene transcripts through Thoc5, and is required for self-renewal at least in part by regulating their export and expression. During differentiation, THO loses its interaction with those transcripts due to reduced Thoc5 expression, leading to decreased expression of pluripotency proteins that facilitates exit from self-renewal. THO is also important for the establishment of pluripotency, as its depletion inhibits somatic cell reprogramming and blastocyst development. Together, our data indicate that THO regulates pluripotency gene mRNA export to control ESC self-renewal and differentiation, and therefore uncover a role for this aspect of post-transcriptional regulation in stem cell fate specification