16 research outputs found

    Remote Work, Work Measurement and the State of Work Research in Human-Centred Computing

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    Over the past few decades, a small but growing group of people have worked remotely from their homes. With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people found themselves joining this group overnight. In this position paper, we examine the kinds of work that ‘went remote’ in response to the pandemic, and consider the ways in which this transition was influenced by (and in turn came to influence) contemporary trends in digital workplace measurement and evaluation. We see that employers appeared reluctant to let certain classes of employee work remotely. When the pandemic forced staff home, employers compensated by turning to digital surveillance tools, even though, as we argue, these tools seem unable to overcome the significant conceptual barriers to understanding how people are working. We also observed that, in the United Kingdom context, the pandemic didn’t mean remote work for a significant proportion of the population. We assert that, to maximize its impact, ‘future of work’ research in human-centred computing must be more inclusive and representative of work, rather than focusing on the experiences of knowledge workers and those involved in new forms of work

    Influenza A Virus Infection of Human Primary Dendritic Cells Impairs Their Ability to Cross-Present Antigen to CD8 T Cells

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    Influenza A virus (IAV) infection is normally controlled by adaptive immune responses initiated by dendritic cells (DCs). We investigated the consequences of IAV infection of human primary DCs on their ability to function as antigen-presenting cells. IAV was internalized by both myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs but only mDCs supported viral replication. Although infected mDCs efficiently presented endogenous IAV antigens on MHC class II, this was not the case for presentation on MHC class I. Indeed, cross-presentation by uninfected cells of minute amounts of endocytosed, exogenous IAV was ∼300-fold more efficient than presentation of IAV antigens synthesized by infected cells and resulted in a statistically significant increase in expansion of IAV-specific CD8 T cells. Furthermore, IAV infection also impaired cross-presentation of other exogenous antigens, indicating that IAV infection broadly attenuates presentation on MHC class I molecules. Our results suggest that cross-presentation by uninfected mDCs is a preferred mechanism of antigen-presentation for the activation and expansion of CD8 T cells during IAV infection

    Biological and chemical sulfide oxidation in a Beggiatoa inhabited marine sediment

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    The ecological niche of nitrate-storing Beggiatoa, and their contribution to the removal of sulfide were investigated in coastal sediment. With microsensors a clear suboxic zone of 2-10 cm thick was identified, where neither oxygen nor free sulfide was detectable. In this zone most of the Beggiatoa were found, where they oxidize sulfide with internally stored nitrate. The sulfide input into the suboxic zone was dominated by an upward sulfide flux from deeper sediment, whereas the local production in the suboxic zone was much smaller. Despite their abundance, the calculated sulfide-oxidizing capacity of the Beggiatoa could account for only a small fraction of the total sulfide removal in the sediment. Consequently, most of the sulfide flux into the suboxic layer must have been removed by chemical processes, mainly by precipitation with Fe2+ and oxidation by Fe(III), which was coupled with a pH increase. The free Fe2+ diffusing upwards was oxidized by Mn(IV), resulting in a strong pH decrease. The nitrate storage capacity allows Beggiatoa to migrate randomly up and down in anoxic sediments with an accumulated gliding distance of 4 m before running out of nitrate. We propose that the steep sulfide gradient and corresponding high sulfide flux, a typical characteristic of Beggiatoa habitats, is not needed for their metabolic performance, but rather used as a chemotactic cue by the highly motile filaments to avoid getting lost at depth in the sediment. Indeed sulfide is a repellent for Beggiatoa

    A systematic, large-scale resequencing screen of X-chromosome coding exons in mental retardation

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    Large-scale systematic resequencing has been proposed as the key future strategy for the discovery of rare, disease-causing sequence variants across the spectrum of human complex disease. We have sequenced the coding exons of the X chromosome in 208 families with X-linked mental retardation (XLMR), the largest direct screen for constitutional disease-causing mutations thus far reported. The screen has discovered nine genes implicated in XLMR, including SYP, ZNF711 and CASK reported here, confirming the power of this strategy. The study has, however, also highlighted issues confronting whole-genome sequencing screens, including the observation that loss of function of 1% or more of X-chromosome genes is compatible with apparently normal existence
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