Factors that Influence the Utilization of Digital Transactions among the Micro-Business Enterprises in General Santos City

This study investigated the factors that influence the utilization of digital transactions among micro-business enterprises in General Santos City. The application of e-commerce services has rapidly increased in response to the pandemic. Moving toward business recovery, different types of literature have stressed how important the shift to digital technology is for businesses to thrive in the new normal. This study sought to investigate the factors that influence users' preferences for switching from traditional cash-based transactions to electronic commerce systems. The Push-Pull-Mooring Framework was employed as the research model. A descriptive and correlational analysis was conducted using data from 65 retail and 35 wholesale micro-business enterprises in General Santos City. The results indicated that the respondents’ intention to utilize digital transactions is significantly influenced by one push factor which is the transaction inconvenience, also by pull factors which include economic benefit, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and critical mass, and by mooring factors including trust, perceived security and privacy, and switching costs. To achieve and sustain recovery, assistance, and support for relatively young and small companies might be prioritized in terms of utilizing e-commerce services as well as setting strong policies towards giving aid, especially to micro-business enterprises in developing digital infrastructures and complementing with these strategies is strengthening data privacy and security for these e-commerce services. This study concluded that the advantages that can be obtained from the utilization of e-commerce services, as well as external factors, impose significance on businesses.&nbsp

The Impact of TikTok Policies on Information Flows during Times of War: Evidence of ‘Splinternet’ and ‘Shadow-Promotion’ in Russia

This research discusses how TikTok’s adaptation to Russian war censorship laws after the invasion of Ukraine affected content accessibility and prioritization on the platform. The study uses a combination of scraping and sock-puppet algorithmic audits to understand the impact of platform policy on information flows during times of war. The first test found that TikTok restricted access to non-Russian content in Russia, resulting in a 95% reduction of available content in the country. The second test revealed that TikTok unevenly applied its content policies, allowing pro-war content to proliferate in Russia despite its claim of enforcing a ban on new content uploads in the country. The third test highlighted a case of “shadow-promotion,” i.e., the prioritization of content supposed to be banned. The study's findings emphasize the need to monitor the platform's policy decisions during times of conflict, as they can contribute to the creation of a 'Splinternet.' The study also underscores the significant power that social media companies wield in shaping information flows during times of war and highlights the need to closely monitor platform policy decisions during such times. The article also provides recommendations for implementing the DSA in the EU context, which could help avoid problems such as those encountered while monitoring the platform in Russia

Directing Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells Toward Retinal Pigment Epithelium Lineage

Development of efficient and reproducible conditions for directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into specific cell types is important not only to understand early human development but also to enable more practical applications, such as in vitro disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapies. The differentiation of stem cells to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in particular holds promise as a source of cells for therapeutic replacement in age-related macular degeneration. Here we show development of an efficient method for deriving homogeneous RPE populations in a period of 45 days using an adherent, monolayer system and defined xeno-free media and matrices. The method utilizes sequential inhibition and activation of the Activin and bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathways and can be applied to both human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells as the starting population. In addition, we use whole genome transcript analysis to characterize cells at different stages of differentiation that provides further understanding of the developmental dynamics and fate specification of RPE. We show that with the described method, RPE develop through stages consistent with their formation during embryonic development. This characterization- together with the absence of steps involving embryoid bodies, three-dimensional culture, or manual dissections, which are common features of other protocols-makes this process very attractive for use in research as well as for clinical applications. SIGNIFICANCE: This report describes a novel method of directed differentiation to generate retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells from pluripotent stem cells. The employed method is based on adherent monolayer culture using xeno-free conditions and manipulation of the Activin and bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathway using small molecules and recombinant proteins. Whole genome microarray analysis was performed to characterize the differentiation process and understand the developmental path of RPE generation in vitro. This method can be applied for generation of RPE for research as well as for clinical applications

Project X functional requirements specification

Project X is a multi-megawatt proton facility being developed to support a world-leading program in Intensity Frontier physics at Fermilab. The facility is designed to support programs in elementary particle and nuclear physics, with possible applications to nuclear energy research. A Functional Requirements Specification has been developed in order to establish performance criteria for the Project X complex in support of these multiple missions, and to assure that the facility is designed with sufficient upgrade capability to provide U.S. leadership for many decades to come. This paper will briefly review the previously described Functional Requirements, and then discuss their recent evolution.Comment: 3 p

Identification of limb-specific Lmx1b auto-regulatory modules with Nail-patella syndrome pathogenicity

© The Author(s) 2021.LMX1B haploinsufficiency causes Nail-patella syndrome (NPS; MIM 161200), characterized by nail dysplasia, absent/hypoplastic patellae, chronic kidney disease, and glaucoma. Accordingly in mice, Lmx1b has been shown to play crucial roles in the development of the limb, kidney and eye. Although one functional allele of Lmx1b appears adequate for development, Lmx1b null mice display ventral-ventral distal limbs with abnormal kidney, eye and cerebellar development, more disruptive, but fully concordant with NPS. In Lmx1b functional knockouts (KOs), Lmx1b transcription in the limb is decreased nearly 6-fold, indicating autoregulation. Herein, we report on two conserved Lmx1b-associated cis-regulatory modules (LARM1 and LARM2) that are bound by Lmx1b, amplify Lmx1b expression with unique spatial modularity in the limb, and are necessary for Lmx1b-mediated limb dorsalization. These enhancers, being conserved across vertebrates (including coelacanth, but not other fish species), and required for normal locomotion, provide a unique opportunity to study the role of dorsalization in the fin to limb transition. We also report on two NPS patient families with normal LMX1B coding sequence, but with loss-of-function variations in the LARM1/2 region, stressing the role of regulatory modules in disease pathogenesis.This work was supported in part by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (M.A.R) (BFU2017-88265-P); the National Organization for Rare Disorders (K.C.O.), and the Loma Linda University Pathology Research Endowment Fund (K.C.O.)

Macrocyclisation of small peptides enabled by oxetane incorporation

Cyclic peptides are an important source of new drugs but are challenging to produce synthetically. We show that head-to-tail peptide macrocyclisations are greatly improved, as measured by isolated yields, reaction rates and product distribution, by substitution of one of the backbone amide C═O bonds with an oxetane ring. The cyclisation precursors are easily made by standard solution- or solid-phase peptide synthesis techniques. Macrocyclisations across a range of challenging ring sizes (tetra-, penta- and hexapeptides) are enabled by incorporation of this turn-inducing element. Oxetane incorporation is shown to be superior to other established amino acid modifications such as N-methylation. The positional dependence of the modification on cyclisation efficiency is mapped using a cyclic peptide of sequence LAGAY. We provide the first direct experimental evidence that oxetane modification induces a turn in linear peptide backbones, through the observation of dNN (i, i + 2) and dαN (i, i + 2) NOEs, which offers an explanation for these improvements. For cyclic peptide, cLAGAY, a combination of NMR derived distance restraints and molecular dynamics simulations are used to show that this modification alters the backbone conformation in proximity to the oxetane, with the flexibility of the ring reduced and a new intramolecular H-bond established. Finally, we incorporated an oxetane into a cyclic pentapeptide inhibitor of Aminopeptidase N, a transmembrane metalloprotease overexpressed on the surface of cancer cells. The inhibitor, cCNGRC, displayed similar IC50 values in the presence or absence of an oxetane at the glycine residue, indicating that bioactivity is fully retained upon amide C═O bond replacement

Test results of Fermilab-built quadrupoles for the LHC interaction regions

As part of the US LHC Accelerator Project, Fermilab is nearing the completion of the Q2 optical elements for the LHC interaction region final focus. Each Q2 element (LQXB) consists of two identical high gradient quadrupoles (MQXB) with a dipole orbit corrector (MCBX). This paper summarizes the test results for the LQXB/MQXB program including quench performance, magnetic measurements and alignment, and gives the status of production and delivery of the LQXB magnets to the LHC