Technology, Long Work Hours, and Stress Worsen Work-life Balance in the Construction Industry

The aim of this research is to assess the level of work-life balance and to determine factors that affect work-life balance in the Australian construction industry. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 89 employees of a medium-sized construction organisation in Sydney, Australia. The results show that poor boundary management is responsible for the relatively low work-life balance. Technology, business culture, commute time, salary compensation, health, and the implementation of work-life balance initiatives are factors that influence work-life balance. On one hand, technology, long work hours, and stress can have negative impacts on work-life balance. On the other hand, work-life balance initiatives supported by appropriate business culture can promote better work-life balance in the construction industry. Construction organisations should make sure that work-life balance initiatives are made known to all employees and supported by top-level managers and those at the project level, so that employees are comfortable in using them. The initiatives should also cater the diverse needs of employees

Trace formulae and inverse spectral theory for Schrödinger operators

We extend the well-known trace formula for Hill's equation to general one-dimensional Schrödinger operators. The new function ξ, which we introduce, is used to study absolutely continuous spectrum and inverse problems

EAP Listening Coursebooks: The Search for Authenticity

Authenticity has always been a key consideration in the selection and evaluation of EAP materials, and listening materials are no exception. However, the lectures presented in EAP coursebooks have been criticised for failing to provide authentic examples of academic lecture discourse. This study took a small sample of six business themed lectures from three EAP coursebooks, and analysed their use of organisational metadiscourse, pronouns and questions. The coursebook lectures were compared with an authentic lecture from the BASE corpus. The results showed that the coursebook lectures are not representative of the discourse of authentic academic lectures. It is suggested that teachers cannot rely on such listening materials alone to prepare students for university lectures

PinR mediates the generation of reversible population diversity in Streptococcus zooepidemicus

Opportunistic pathogens must adapt to and survive in a wide range of complex ecosystems. Streptococcus zooepidemicus is an opportunistic pathogen of horses and many other animals, including humans. The assembly of different surface architecture phenotypes from one genotype is likely to be crucial to the successful exploitation of such an opportunistic lifestyle. Construction of a series of mutants revealed that a serine recombinase, PinR, inverts 114 bp of the promoter of SZO_08560, which is bordered by GTAGACTTTA and TAAAGTCTAC inverted repeats. Inversion acts as a switch, controlling the transcription of this sortase-processed protein, which may enhance the attachment of S. zooepidemicus to equine trachea. The genome of a recently sequenced strain of S. zooepidemicus, 2329 (Sz2329), was found to contain a disruptive internal inversion of 7 kb of the FimIV pilus locus, which is bordered by TAGAAA and TTTCTA inverted repeats. This strain lacks pinR and this inversion may have become irreversible following the loss of this recombinase. Active inversion of FimIV was detected in three strains of S. zooepidemicus, 1770 (Sz1770), B260863 (SzB260863) and H050840501 (SzH050840501), all of which encoded pinR. A deletion mutant of Sz1770 that lacked pinR was no longer capable of inverting its internal region of FimIV. The data highlight redundancy in the PinR sequence recognition motif around a short TAGA consensus and suggest that PinR can reversibly influence the wider surface architecture of S. zooepidemicus, providing this organism with a bet-hedging solution to survival in fluctuating environments

"Gene accordions" cause genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in clonal populations of Staphylococcus aureus

Funding: Research Executive Agency to SH (https://erc.europa.eu/); European Union’s Horizon 2020 research andinnovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No“GA655978”; University of Tübingen (EKUT), Ministry for Science and Art Baden-Württemberg via the RiSC, infrastructural funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Cluster of Excellence EXC 2124 Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (SH); Chief Scientists Office (Reference: SIRN10) (MTGH).Gene tandem amplifications are thought to drive bacterial evolution, but they are transient in the absence of selection, making their investigation challenging. Here, we analyze genomic sequences of Staphylococcus aureus USA300 isolates from the same geographical area to identify variations in gene copy number, which we confirm by long-read sequencing. We find several hotspots of variation, including the csa1 cluster encoding lipoproteins known to be immunogenic. We also show that the csa1 locus expands and contracts during bacterial growth in vitro and during systemic infection of mice, and recombination creates rapid heterogeneity in initially clonal cultures. Furthermore, csa1 copy number variants differ in their immunostimulatory capacity, revealing a mechanism by which gene copy number variation can modulate the host immune response.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

An exploration of alternative visualisations of the basic helix-loop-helix protein interaction network

Background: Alternative representations of biochemical networks emphasise different aspects of the data and contribute to the understanding of complex biological systems. In this study we present a variety of automated methods for visualisation of a protein-protein interaction network, using the basic helix-loop-helix ( bHLH) family of transcription factors as an example. Results: Network representations that arrange nodes ( proteins) according to either continuous or discrete information are investigated, revealing the existence of protein sub-families and the retention of interactions following gene duplication events. Methods of network visualisation in conjunction with a phylogenetic tree are presented, highlighting the evolutionary relationships between proteins, and clarifying the context of network hubs and interaction clusters. Finally, an optimisation technique is used to create a three-dimensional layout of the phylogenetic tree upon which the protein-protein interactions may be projected. Conclusion: We show that by incorporating secondary genomic, functional or phylogenetic information into network visualisation, it is possible to move beyond simple layout algorithms based on network topology towards more biologically meaningful representations. These new visualisations can give structure to complex networks and will greatly help in interpreting their evolutionary origins and functional implications. Three open source software packages (InterView, TVi and OptiMage) implementing our methods are available

3D modelling of geological and anthropogenic deposits at the World Heritage Site of Bryggen in Bergen, Norway

The landscape of many historic cities and the character of their shallow subsurface environments are defined by a legacy of interaction between anthropogenic and geological processes. Anthropogenic deposits and excavations result from processes ranging from archaeological activities to modern urban development. Hence, in heritage cities, any geological investigation should acknowledge the role of past and ongoing human activities, while any archaeological investigation should be conducted with geological processes in mind. In this paper it is shown that 3D geological and anthropogenic models at different scales can provide a holistic system for the management of the subsurface. It provides a framework for the integration of other spatial and processmodels to help assess the preservationpotential for buried heritage. Such an integrated framework model is thus contributing to a decision support system for sustainable urban (re)development and regeneration in cities, while preserving cultural heritage. A collaborative approach is proposed to enhance research and implementation of combined geological and archaeological modelling for sustainable land use planning and heritage preservation, using York and Bryggen as prime examples. This paper presents the status of 3D framework modelling at Bryggen in Norway as an example

Deedle-Dee-Dee! Detroit

No cover arthttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/9059/thumbnail.jp