Tissue-specific Expression of Distinct Spectrin and Ankyrin Transcripts in Erythroid and Nonerythroid Cells

cDNA probes for three components of the erythroid membrane skeleton, α spectrin, β spectrin, and ankyrin, were obtained by using monospecific antibodies to screen a λgt11 expression vector library containing cDNA prepared from chicken erythroid poly(A)^+ RNA. Each cDNA appears to hybridize to one gene type in the chicken genome. Qualitatively distinct RNA species in myogenic and erythroid cells are detected for β spectrin and ankyrin, while α spectrin exists as a single species of transcript in all tissues examined. This tissue-specific expression of RNAs is regulated quantitatively during myogenesis in vitro, since all three accumulate only upon myoblast fusion. Furthermore, RNAs for two of the three genes do not accumulate to detectable levels in chicken embryo fibroblasts, demonstrating that their accumulation can be noncoordinate. These observations suggest that independent gene regulation and tissue-specific production of heterogeneous transcripts from the β spectrin and ankyrin genes underlie the formation of distinct membrane skeletons in erythroid and muscle cells

Suppression of low-energy Andreev states by a supercurrent in YBa_2Cu_3O_7-delta

We report a coherence-length scale phenomenon related to how the high-Tc order parameter (OP) evolves under a directly-applied supercurrent. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy was performed on current-carrying YBa_2Cu_3O_7-delta thin-film strips at 4.2K. At current levels well below the theoretical depairing limit, the low-energy Andreev states are suppressed by the supercurrent, while the gap-like structures remain unchanged. We rule out the likelihood of various extrinsic effects, and propose instead a model based on phase fluctuations in the d-wave BTK formalism to explain the suppression. Our results suggest that a supercurrent could weaken the local phase coherence while preserving the pairing amplitude. Other possible scenarios which may cause the observed phenomenon are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Building Traceability Systems: A Design Science Approach

This paper presents a design theory for real-time traceability system, which is derived from the chaos theory and from two case studies. We present a design method for supply chain analysis and several design principles for real-time traceability system design. Theoretically, the proposed design theory reveals the design and development process of real-time data capture systems and illustrates a methodology to analyze complex and random behaviors in supply chains. Practically, the design theory provides a robust guideline for practitioners in developing real-time traceability systems to enhance organizational performance. Further, the class of design principles discussed in this paper serves the additional function of explaining the way to incorporate real-time data capture functions in commonly used supply chain systems

Two intracellular and cell type-specific bacterial symbionts in the placozoan Trichoplax H2

Placozoa is an enigmatic phylum of simple, microscopic, marine metazoans(1,2). Although intracellular bacteria have been found in all members of this phylum, almost nothing is known about their identity, location and interactions with their host(3-6). We used metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing of single host individuals, plus metaproteomic and imaging analyses, to show that the placozoan Trichoplax sp. H2 lives in symbiosis with two intracellular bacteria. One symbiont forms an undescribed genus in the Midichloriaceae (Rickettsiales)(7,8) and has a genomic repertoire similar to that of rickettsial parasites(9,10), but does not seem to express key genes for energy parasitism. Correlative image analyses and three-dimensional electron tomography revealed that this symbiont resides in the rough endoplasmic reticulum of its host's internal fibre cells. The second symbiont belongs to the Margulisbacteria, a phylum without cultured representatives and not known to form intracellular associations(11-13). This symbiont lives in the ventral epithelial cells of Trichoplax, probably metabolizes algal lipids digested by its host and has the capacity to supplement the placozoan's nutrition. Our study shows that one of the simplest animals has evolved highly specific and intimate associations with symbiotic, intracellular bacteria and highlights that symbioses can provide access to otherwise elusive microbial dark matter

Is a Positive Review Always Effective? Advertising Appeal Effect in the Persuasion of Online Customer Reviews

Despite the expected value of online customer reviews as an emerging advertising medium, the manner of enforcing its effectiveness on customers’ purchase behavior is still a question not well answered. To address the question, we propose a new central route cue called “advertising appeal” to examine attitude and intention to purchase a product or service based on the reasoning of the elaboration likelihood model. We also propose that consumers’ consumption goal and attitude certainty separately moderate the advertising appeal effect on purchase intention through a degree of favorable attitude. We test these hypotheses by conducting a laboratory experiment with 50 participants. In this experiment, we manipulate two kinds of advertising appeals and consumption goals. This study demonstrates that attribute-based appeal reviews are more influential than emotion-based appeal reviews in the persuasion process, regardless of the individuals’ consumption goals. However, the advertising appeal effect on purchase intention is more pronounced for hedonic consumers than for utilitarian consumers

On Measuring Fairness in Generative Models

Recently, there has been increased interest in fair generative models. In this work, we conduct, for the first time, an in-depth study on fairness measurement, a critical component in gauging progress on fair generative models. We make three contributions. First, we conduct a study that reveals that the existing fairness measurement framework has considerable measurement errors, even when highly accurate sensitive attribute (SA) classifiers are used. These findings cast doubts on previously reported fairness improvements. Second, to address this issue, we propose CLassifier Error-Aware Measurement (CLEAM), a new framework which uses a statistical model to account for inaccuracies in SA classifiers. Our proposed CLEAM reduces measurement errors significantly, e.g., 4.98% $\rightarrow$ 0.62% for StyleGAN2 w.r.t. Gender. Additionally, CLEAM achieves this with minimal additional overhead. Third, we utilize CLEAM to measure fairness in important text-to-image generator and GANs, revealing considerable biases in these models that raise concerns about their applications. Code and more resources: https://sutd-visual-computing-group.github.io/CLEAM/.Comment: Accepted in NeurIPS2

The Maturing of E-Commerce Education in Our Curricula

When the power of e-commerce was unleashed for the benefit of the society, the evolution of the business world started. Businesses used electronic data interchange (EDI) to reduce costs, increase the speed, and increase the accuracy of business documents when doing business with other companies. Consumers were no longer tied to local stores or mail catalogues for retail purchases. E-commerce became a new retail outlet in the late 1990s. Educational institutions, for their part, responded by initiating e-commerce related research and curricula. Since those early days of e-commerce education, e-commerce education has matured. It has transformed from scattered courses and is now manifested in undergraduate and graduate degree programs