Teaming up: from motors to people.

When I reflect on how I became a cell biologist and why I love being one today, one thing that comes to mind is the many terrific collaborations I have had. The science I am most proud of from my graduate and postdoctoral training would not have been possible without working in teams with other scientists. Now, in my own group, much of our best work is being done collaboratively, both within the lab and with other labs. In this essay, I will highlight my experiences working in teams as a trainee, the role teamwork has played in my own research group, and how important I think collaborative science is for the future of biological research

Hybrid Full-Duplex and Alternate Multiple Relay Selection and Beamforming in AF Cooperative Networks

In this paper, multiple relay selection and beamforming techniques are applied to a dual-hop full-duplex (FD) amplify-and-forward relaying network. We show that our proposed techniques allow the selection to be adaptive to the residual self-interference (SI) level for each of the available relays in the network. The adaptivity of our selection schemes is manifested through a hybrid system that is based on FD relaying and switching based on the overall channel conditions and the statistics of the residual SI channel for each of the relays. In particular, different proposed techniques are shown to be able to adaptively decide on when and how often the used relays should be switched in the case of overwhelming residual SI. Our results show that allowing such a fusion considerably improves the overall performance of the considered relaying scheme in terms of bit error rate compared with state-of-the-art relay selection schemes.This work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation) through GSRA under Grant #2-1-0601-14011.Scopu

College Students’ Loneliness, Feelings About Social Media, and Depressive Symptoms During COVID-19: Between and Within-Person Temporal Associations

During COVID-19, many institutions of higher education implemented health protocols that reduced college students’ in-person interactions and prompted an uptick in their social media use. Although social media has often been implicated in the development of psychosocial difficulties, we tested an alternate hypothesis – that, during the pandemic, students’ feelings about social media for interpersonal connection (i.e., FSMIC), would contribute to reductions in loneliness and depressive symptoms. To investigate temporal associations between loneliness, FSMIC, and depression, we estimated random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM), permitting the disaggregation of between- and within-person effects. Participants (N = 517 undergraduates, Mage = 19.52, SD = 1.26) recruited from two institutions completed measures in Fall 2020 (Time 1), Winter 2021 (Time 2), and Spring 2021 (Time 3). Results, which partially supported the hypothesis that positive FSMIC would diminish psychological difficulties, provided evidence for reciprocal within-person effects between loneliness (but not depression) and FSMIC. Students who reported more positive FSMIC than was usual for them at one time point experienced less loneliness than was usual for them at the subsequent time point; moreover, students who experienced less loneliness than was usual for them reported more positive subsequent FSMIC. Findings further showed that students who scored higher than expected on loneliness at one time point experienced higher than expected levels of depression at the next time point. Evidence indicates that positive feelings about social media may have been adaptive during COVID-19, which has implications for how educational leadership leverages social media to promote college students\u27 psychosocial adjustment

Case 4 : Big Comfy Couch: The Implementation of an LGBTQ2S+ Safe and Positive Space Within a Public Health Unit

Samara Lewis is a public health nurse specialist at the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit (NBPSDHU). Samara has been tasked with creating a Safe and Positive Spaces workgroup that will aid in the implementation of an LGBTQ2S+ Safe and Positive Space at the health unit. Priority number one in the health unit’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan aligns directly with the creation of said spaces, as the health unit is committed to provisioning healthy sexuality messaging and to ensuring safe, welcoming, and accessible health services to all sexual and gender diversities. Safe and Positive Spaces act as facilitators in achieving health equity for the LGBTQ2S+ community. In September 2017, Samara will return to the Sexual Health department—her home department. Consequently, the future of the workgroup is unknown. Will a Positive Space champion step up and commit to leading the workgroup? Will the health unit achieve health equity for the LGBTQ2S+ community? Time is of the essence

Sparse Equalizers for OFDM Signals with Insufficient Cyclic Prefix

The cyclic prefix (CP) is appended in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals to combat inter-symbol interference (ISI) and inter-carrier interference (ICI) induced by the communication channel, which limits its spectral efficiency. Therefore, inserting an insufficient CP and equalizing the resulting ICI and ISI is a method that has been circulating the literature for a while, aiming at increasing the efficiency of OFDM systems. In this paper, we propose a reduced-complexity sparse linear equalizer and a decision-feedback equalizer for OFDM signals with insufficient CP. A performance-complexity trade-off is highlighted, where we show that it is possible to equalize the received signal with a reduced complexity equalizer while having a limited performance loss. Our proposed equalizer designs are not only less complex to realize, but are shown to provide a higher data rate. The proposed equalizers are further evaluated in terms of the worst-case coherence, a metric determining the effectiveness of our used approach. Numerical results show that we can significantly and reliably reduce the order of the design complexity while performing very close to the conventional complex optimal equalizers. 2013 IEEE.This work was supported by GSRA from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) under Grant 2-1-0601-14011. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.Scopu

Reconstitution of dynein transport to the microtubule plus end by kinesin

Cytoplasmic dynein powers intracellular movement of cargo toward the microtubule minus end. The first step in a variety of dynein transport events is the targeting of dynein to the dynamic microtubule plus end, but the molecular mechanism underlying this spatial regulation is not understood. Here, we reconstitute dynein plus-end transport using purified proteins from S. cerevisiae and dissect the mechanism using single-molecule microscopy. We find that two proteins–homologs of Lis1 and Clip170–are sufficient to couple dynein to Kip2, a plus-end-directed kinesin. Dynein is transported to the plus end by Kip2, but is not a passive passenger, resisting its own plus-end-directed motion. Two microtubule-associated proteins, homologs of Clip170 and EB1, act as processivity factors for Kip2, helping it overcome dynein's intrinsic minus-end-directed motility. This reveals how a minimal system of proteins transports a molecular motor to the start of its track. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02641.00