“Uncovered in the glass cages”. Rethinking neoliberal governance in the times of COVID-19: Critical performativity for performance management in higher education:

This conceptual article draws on social harm theory and critical management studies to critically examine the neoliberal governance of academics’ performance management in higher education, particularly in the emerging “normal” of COVID-19. The article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis that lays bare the deleterious global ramifications of the dominant political-economic ideology of neoliberalism in every aspect of societal life, more so in education. Moreover, the justifiably lauded shift to the digital space of teaching and learning is increasing the already problematic panoptic surveillance and is invading the hiding spaces within the glass cages. The neoliberal approach to PM is inflicting social harms, unintentionally and intentionally. With the COVID-19 pandemic offering us the “rega” moment of opportunity to rethink and pragmatically insert critical alternatives to the neoliberal governance of universities’ performance management practices, this article proposes a critical performativity approach to work towards incremental micro-emancipations

A quantitatively-modeled homozygosity mapping algorithm, qHomozygosityMapping, utilizing whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping data

Homozygosity mapping is a powerful procedure that is capable of detecting recessive disease-causing genes in a few patients from families with a history of inbreeding. We report here a homozygosity mapping algorithm for high-density single nucleotide polymorphism arrays that is able to (i) correct genotyping errors, (ii) search for autozygous segments genome-wide through regions with runs of homozygous SNPs, (iii) check the validity of the inbreeding history, and (iv) calculate the probability of the disease-causing gene being located in the regions identified. The genotyping error correction restored an average of 94.2% of the total length of all regions with run of homozygous SNPs, and 99.9% of the total length of them that were longer than 2 cM. At the end of the analysis, we would know the probability that regions identified contain a disease-causing gene, and we would be able to determine how much effort should be devoted to scrutinizing the regions. We confirmed the power of this algorithm using 6 patients with Siiyama-type α1-antitrypsin deficiency, a rare autosomal recessive disease in Japan. Our procedure will accelerate the identification of disease-causing genes using high-density SNP array data

Significant Correlation between Chromosomal Aberration and Nuclear Morphology in Urothelial Carcinoma

We aimed to identify whether there is any correlation between chromosomal/genetic changes, nuclear morphology and the histological grade of urothelial carcinomas of the urinary bladder. Morphometry and multicolour fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) techniques were applied to 250 cells in five low-grade cases and 350 cells in seven high-grade cases of urothelial carcinoma. Compared with low-grade carcinomas, most high-grade cases showed larger and more variable nuclear size, more frequent polysomy of centromere enumeration probes (CEPs) 3, 7 and 17, and the loss of the 9p21 locus. The number of CEP signals in cells was increased as the nuclear area of the cells became larger. Cells with gains in two or more types of CEP had significantly larger nuclei than cells with normal FISH signal patterns. In conclusion, the present study indicates that there was a correlation between nuclear morphology and chromosomal/genetic changes which were related to histological grading. Thus, we show that differences in the chromosomal/genetic aberrations present in low- and high-grade tumours can affect not only nuclear morphology but also the histopathological and clinical behaviour of urothelial carcinomas

Donnan effect on chloride ion distribution as a determinant of body fluid composition that allows action potentials to spread via fast sodium channels

Proteins in any solution with a pH value that differs from their isoelectric point exert both an electric Donnan effect (DE) and colloid osmotic pressure. While the former alters the distribution of ions, the latter forces water diffusion. In cells with highly Cl--permeable membranes, the resting potential is more dependent on the cytoplasmic pH value, which alters the Donnan effect of cell proteins, than on the current action of Na/K pumps. Any weak (positive or negative) electric disturbances of their resting potential are quickly corrected by chloride shifts

Offscreen and in the chair next to your: conversational agents speaking through actual human bodies

his paper demonstrates how to interact with a conversational agent that speaks through an actual human body face-to-face and in person (i.e., offscreen). This is made possible by the cyranoid method: a technique involving a human person speech shadowing for a remote third-party (i.e., receiving their words via a covert audio-relay apparatus and repeating them aloud in real-time). When a person shadows for an artificial conversational agent source, we call the resulting hybrid an “echoborg.” We report a study in which people encountered conversational agents either through a human shadower face-to-face or via a text interface under conditions where they assumed their interlocutor to be an actual person. Our results show that the perception of a conversational agent is dramatically altered when the agent is voiced by an actual, tangible person. We discuss the potential implications this methodology has for the development of conversational agents and general person perception research

Ionic liquids as tribological performance improving additive for in-service and used fully-formulated diesel engine lubricants

In recent years, several papers have been published that investigate the potential use of ionic liquids (ILs) as additives in lubricants. However, corrosive attack of ILs on lubricated metal surfaces and low miscibility of ILs in the non-polar oils are major obstacles to maintaining an optimum lubrication performance level. High miscibility and no corrosive behaviour of Trihexyltetradecyl phosphonium bis(2,4,4-tri-methylpentyl) phosphinate and Trihexyltetradecyl phosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate, as lubricating oil additives have recently been described in literature. This article presents work on using these phosphonium based ILs as an additive in the fully formulated diesel engine lubricants. This approach could allow the used lubricants to recover their tribological performance for further use at the end of service life. This extension of service life has the potential to generate significant economic and environmental benefits. Also it will add to the much needed knowledge about the effect of interaction between ILs and existing additives in engine-aged lubricants on the tribological performance of ring-liner tribo-system of diesel engines. Results revealed an improvement in friction and antiwear performance of used lubricant by addition of both ILs. However an increase in wear was noted for new (fresh) and in-service lubricant samples. An interesting interference between existing lubricant additives and added ILs in a boundary film formation process has been observed

MUC4 and MUC5AC are highly specific tumour-associated mucins in biliary tract cancer

Alterations in epithelial mucin expression are associated with carcinogenesis, but there are few data in biliary tract cancer (BTC). In pancreatic malignancy, MUC4 is a diagnostic and prognostic tumour marker, whereas MUC5AC has been proposed as a sensitive serological marker for BTC. We assessed MUC4 and MUC5AC expression in (i) prospectively collected bile and serum specimens from 72 patients with biliary obstruction (39 BTC) by real-time reverse transcriptase–PCR (qPCR) and western blot analysis, and (ii) 79 archived biliary tissues (69 BTC) by immunohistochemistry. In bile, MUC4 protein was detected in 27% of BTC and 29% of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) cases, but not in other benign and malignant biliary diseases (P<0.01 and P=0.06). qPCR revealed a 1.9-fold increased MUC4 mRNA expression in BTC patients' bile compared with benign disease. In archived tissues, MUC4 protein was detected in 37% of BTC but in none of the benign samples (P=0.03). In serum, MUC5AC was found exclusively in BTC and PSC sera (44% and 13%, respectively; P<0.001 for BTC vs non-BTC) and correlated negatively with BTC survival. Biliary MUC4 and serum MUC5AC are highly specific tumour-associated mucins that may be useful in the diagnosis and formulation of therapeutic strategies in BTC