The Relationship Between Stress and Remote Working in Indian Information Technology Companies

Purpose: While remote working is a common practice in Information Technology organization, it was mostly confined to a small percentage of employees. The COVID-19 pandemic forced several companies to swiftly adapt to a near 100 percentage remote working model. The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between Stress and Remote Working in the Indian IT companies.   Design/Methodology/Approach: With multiple waves of infection, several companies are yet to return back to office. It is by now clear that, remote working is going to be way of life. Most companies are looking at a hybrid work model even after the pandemic era. However, it is important to realise that implementation of remote working is a much broader subject. Employees have been complaining of stress and fatigue while working from home. NASSCOM data has shown an increase in attrition across IT organizations.  We decided to adopt the survey approach for studying work stress while working from home and the impact on the intent to stay amongst employees working in IT organizations. We followed the snowball sampling method and a total of 181 employees participated from IT Companies across India. A model was created to explore the relationship between Autonomy, Emotional Demands, Work Pressure, Work Engagement, Recognition, Intent to Leave and Stress. A PLS-SEM model was created and the relationships were analyzed.   Findings: A total of six hypotheses were tested and the result was conclusive. The result corroborated with the fact that working from home is stressful and identified the factors that influence the stress. While remote working continues to be a preferred option, the concerns raised by the employees were valid and hence stress induing. We also spoke to a group of HR Managers to understand and solution some of the problems that surfaced in our survey. Together, we arrived at recommendations that could help address these concerns. As remote working is going to be a part of future work strategy, it is important to bring about these changes to immediately reduce the increasing attrition in Indian IT organizations.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Organizations should understand that remote working is the future way forward. With more clients being open to have employees working from home it is important for the organizations to ensure that they provide a stress free work environment to their remote workers. While there could be other external factors that could induce stress, it is the responsibility of the organization to focus on the controllable factos.    Originality/Value: While working from home is not new to Indian Indian IT companies they have allowed only a small percentage of their workforce to operate remotely. Most employees are allowed to work from home on a need basis. However, permanent work from home is generally discouraged. Remote working by majority workforce was uncommon before the pandemic and hence this topic was rarely researched. The recommendations provided based on our research study could help bridge the gaps and help organizations reduce the stress levels of their employees

Remote Onboarding Effectiveness in Indian it Industry During the Pandemic

Purpose: The outbreak and impact of COVID-19 has definitely caused the most drastic and rapid shift to the global workforce. The Information Technology (IT) industry was amongst early responders who adopted a remote working model. The aim of this study was to understand the effectiveness of remote onboarding experience in the IT companies.   Design/methodology/approach: The perceived benefits of remote working such as creating valuable opportunities for cost saving and greater flexibility for staff has caused many businesses to understand it is a beneficial model of working in the future and hence adopt it. Now that remote working is here to stay, this research studied the experience of the employees who were recruited in the years 2019 and 2020 into various IT organisations. A survey was circulated to understand this effect and a total of 126 employees participated from 21 IT Companies across India. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was verified and the data was analyzed using SPSS V22.   Findings: The results indicated that there is a significant difference in the joining experience between the two groups. The findings showed that the physical joining experience worked better as it helped in a higher employee satisfaction and hence helped learning the job faster. While the remote induction process seemed effective, the gaps pertain to lack of a structured onboarding process, knowledge transfer and supervisor interventions that are relevant for the remote working world.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Organizations should understand the importance of making a good first impression with the new joiners. They should ensure smoother interventions that could enhance the culture immersion and knowledge transfer process.    Originality/value: Most Indian IT companies have always allowed employees to work remotely. However, even these employees were required to be physically present for the onboarding process. Remote onboarding as a process did not exist prior to the pandemic and hence this study touches upon a lesser researched topic. The research recommendations provided in our study could help bridge the gaps and provide a better employee remote joining experience

Floating Active Baffles, System and Method of Slosh Damping Comprising the Same

This disclosure provides a system for damping slosh of a liquid within a tank, a baffle for use in the system, and a method of damping slosh using the system. The system includes a plurality of baffles. Each baffle has a body configured to substantially float upon the liquid. Each baffle also has an activation material received along at least a portion of the body. The activation material is magnetically reactive provided in a quantity sufficient to enable the body to be manipulated in the presence of a magnetic field (M). The system further includes an actuator configured to pro­vide the magnetic field (M)

Leaps and lulls in the developmental transcriptome of Dictyostelium discoideum

Development of the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is triggered by starvation. When placed on a solid substrate, the starving solitary amoebae cease growth, communicate via extracellular cAMP, aggregate by tens of thousands and develop into multicellular organisms. Early phases of the developmental program are often studied in cells starved in suspension while cAMP is provided exogenously. Previous studies revealed massive shifts in the transcriptome under both developmental conditions and a close relationship between gene expression and morphogenesis, but were limited by the sampling frequency and the resolution of the methods. Here, we combine the superior depth and specificity of RNA-seq-based analysis of mRNA abundance with high frequency sampling during filter development and cAMP pulsing in suspension. We found that the developmental transcriptome exhibits mostly gradual changes interspersed by a few instances of large shifts. For each time point we treated the entire transcriptome as single phenotype, and were able to characterize development as groups of similar time points separated by gaps. The grouped time points represented gradual changes in mRNA abundance, or molecular phenotype, and the gaps represented times during which many genes are differentially expressed rapidly, and thus the phenotype changes dramatically. Comparing developmental experiments revealed that gene expression in filter developed cells lagged behind those treated with exogenous cAMP in suspension. The high sampling frequency revealed many genes whose regulation is reproducibly more complex than indicated by previous studies. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis suggested that the transition to multicellularity coincided with rapid accumulation of transcripts associated with DNA processes and mitosis. Later development included the up-regulation of organic signaling molecules and co-factor biosynthesis. Our analysis also demonstrated a high level of synchrony among the developing structures throughout development. Our data describe D. discoideum development as a series of coordinated cellular and multicellular activities. Coordination occurred within fields of aggregating cells and among multicellular bodies, such as mounds or migratory slugs that experience both cell-cell contact and various soluble signaling regimes. These time courses, sampled at the highest temporal resolution to date in this system, provide a comprehensive resource for studies of developmental gene expression

Combinatorial multivalent interactions drive cooperative assembly of the COPII coat

Protein secretion is initiated at the endoplasmic reticulum by the COPII coat, which self-assembles to form vesicles. Here, we examine the mechanisms by which a cargo-bound inner coat layer recruits and is organized by an outer scaffolding layer to drive local assembly of a stable structure rigid enough to enforce membrane curvature. An intrinsically disordered region in the outer coat protein, Sec31, drives binding with an inner coat layer via multiple distinct interfaces, including a newly defined charge-based interaction. These interfaces combinatorially reinforce each other, suggesting coat oligomerization is driven by the cumulative effects of multivalent interactions. The Sec31 disordered region could be replaced by evolutionarily distant sequences, suggesting plasticity in the binding interfaces. Such a multimodal assembly platform provides an explanation for how cells build a powerful yet transient scaffold to direct vesicle traffic.</p

Genome-wide functional annotation and structural verification of metabolic ORFeome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent advances in the field of metabolic engineering have been expedited by the availability of genome sequences and metabolic modelling approaches. The complete sequencing of the <it>C. reinhardtii</it> genome has made this unicellular alga a good candidate for metabolic engineering studies; however, the annotation of the relevant genes has not been validated and the much-needed metabolic ORFeome is currently unavailable. We describe our efforts on the functional annotation of the ORF models released by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), prediction of their subcellular localizations, and experimental verification of their structural annotation at the genome scale.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We assigned enzymatic functions to the translated JGI ORF models of <it>C. reinhardtii</it> by reciprocal BLAST searches of the putative proteome against the UniProt and AraCyc enzyme databases. The best match for each translated ORF was identified and the EC numbers were transferred onto the ORF models. Enzymatic functional assignment was extended to the paralogs of the ORFs by clustering ORFs using BLASTCLUST.</p> <p>In total, we assigned 911 enzymatic functions, including 886 EC numbers, to 1,427 transcripts. We further annotated the enzymatic ORFs by prediction of their subcellular localization. The majority of the ORFs are predicted to be compartmentalized in the cytosol and chloroplast. We verified the structure of the metabolism-related ORF models by reverse transcription-PCR of the functionally annotated ORFs. Following amplification and cloning, we carried out 454FLX and Sanger sequencing of the ORFs. Based on alignment of the 454FLX reads to the ORF predicted sequences, we obtained more than 90% coverage for more than 80% of the ORFs. In total, 1,087 ORF models were verified by 454 and Sanger sequencing methods. We obtained expression evidence for 98% of the metabolic ORFs in the algal cells grown under constant light in the presence of acetate.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We functionally annotated approximately 1,400 JGI predicted metabolic ORFs that can facilitate the reconstruction and refinement of a genome-scale metabolic network. The unveiling of the metabolic potential of this organism, along with structural verification of the relevant ORFs, facilitates the selection of metabolic engineering targets with applications in bioenergy and biopharmaceuticals. The ORF clones are a resource for downstream studies.</p

Molecular determinants underlying functional innovations of TBP and their impact on transcription initiation.

Funder: RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000265TATA-box binding protein (TBP) is required for every single transcription event in archaea and eukaryotes. It binds DNA and harbors two repeats with an internal structural symmetry that show sequence asymmetry. At various times in evolution, TBP has acquired multiple interaction partners and different organisms have evolved TBP paralogs with additional protein regions. Together, these observations raise questions of what molecular determinants (i.e. key residues) led to the ability of TBP to acquire new interactions, resulting in an increasingly complex transcriptional system in eukaryotes. We present a comprehensive study of the evolutionary history of TBP and its interaction partners across all domains of life, including viruses. Our analysis reveals the molecular determinants and suggests a unified and multi-stage evolutionary model for the functional innovations of TBP. These findings highlight how concerted chemical changes on a conserved structural scaffold allow for the emergence of complexity in a fundamental biological process

Architecture of human Rag GTPase heterodimers and their complex with mTORC1

© 2019 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. The Rag guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) recruit the master kinase mTORC1 to lysosomes to regulate cell growth and proliferation in response to amino acid availability. The nucleotide state of Rag heterodimers is critical for their association with mTORC1. Our cryo–electron microscopy structure of RagA/RagC in complex with mTORC1 shows the details of RagA/RagC binding to the RAPTOR subunit of mTORC1 and explains why only the RagAGTP/RagCGDPnucleotide state binds mTORC1. Previous kinetic studies suggested that GTP binding to one Rag locks the heterodimer to prevent GTP binding to the other. Our crystal structures and dynamics of RagA/RagC show the mechanism for this locking and explain how oncogenic hotspot mutations disrupt this process. In contrast to allosteric activation by RHEB, Rag heterodimer binding does not change mTORC1 conformation and activates mTORC1 by targeting it to lysosomes

Cryo-EM reveals the complex architecture of dynactin's shoulder region and pointed end.

Dynactin is a 1.1 MDa complex that activates the molecular motor dynein for ultra-processive transport along microtubules. In order to do this, it forms a tripartite complex with dynein and a coiled-coil adaptor. Dynactin consists of an actin-related filament whose length is defined by its flexible shoulder domain. Despite previous cryo-EM structures, the molecular architecture of the shoulder and pointed end of the filament is still poorly understood due to the lack of high-resolution information in these regions. Here we combine multiple cryo-EM datasets and define precise masking strategies for particle signal subtraction and 3D classification. This overcomes domain flexibility and results in high-resolution maps into which we can build the shoulder and pointed end. The unique architecture of the shoulder securely houses the p150 subunit and positions the four identical p50 subunits in different conformations to bind dynactin's filament. The pointed end map allows us to build the first structure of p62 and reveals the molecular basis for cargo adaptor binding to different sites at the pointed end

A chlamydia effector combining deubiquitination and acetylation activities induces Golgi fragmentation

Pathogenic bacteria are armed with potent effector proteins that subvert host signalling processes during infection1. The activities of bacterial effectors and their associated roles within the host cell are often poorly understood, particularly for Chlamydia trachomatis2, a World Health Organization designated neglected disease pathogen. We identify and explain remarkable dual Lys63-deubiquitinase (DUB) and Lys-acetyltransferase activities in the Chlamydia effector ChlaDUB1. Crystal structures capturing intermediate stages of each reaction reveal how the same catalytic centre of ChlaDUB1 can facilitate such distinct processes, and enable the generation of mutations that uncouple the two activities. Targeted Chlamydia mutant strains allow us to link the DUB activity of ChlaDUB1 and the related, dedicated DUB ChlaDUB2 to fragmentation of the host Golgi apparatus, a key process in Chlamydia infection for which effectors have remained elusive. Our work illustrates the incredible versatility of bacterial effector proteins, and provides important insights towards understanding Chlamydia pathogenesis