BUSINESS REPUTATION SYSTEMS BASED ON BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY—A RISKY ADVANCE

Reputation is indispensable for online business since it supports customers in their buying decisions and allows sellers to justify premium prices. While IS research has investigated reputation systems mainly as review systems on online platforms for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions, no proper solutions have been developed for business-to-business (B2B) transactions yet. We use blockchain technology to propose a new class of reputation systems that apply ratings as voluntary bonus payments: Before a transaction is performed, customers commit to pay a bonus that is granted if a service provider has performed a service properly. As opposed to rival reputation systems that build on cumulated ratings or reviews, our system enables monetized reputation mechanisms that are inextricably linked with online transactions. We expect this system class to provide more trustworthy ratings, which might reduce agency costs and serve quality providers to establish a reputation towards new customers, building on second-order trust

Comparative genomics and computational biology in the basal metazoan Hydra

Cnidaria stellen als basale Metazoen klassische Modellsysteme in der Entwicklungs- und Evolutionsbiologie dar. Im Zeitalter von Genom- und Transkriptomanalyse sind auch für einzelne Vertreter der Cnidaria, wie z. B. der Anemone Nematostella vectensis oder dem Süßwasserpolypen Hydra magnipapillata, neue molekulare Werkzeuge und Datenressourcen entwickelt worden, die neue Perspektiven für wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen ergeben. Mit dem Ziel, die bereits vorhandenen Ressourcen für Hydra zu erweitern, wurde eine bioinformatische Analyse-Plattform für vergleichende Genomanalyse in basalen Metazoen entwickelt und in verschiedenen Fallstudien eingesetzt, die sich mit der Evolution von basalen Immunsystemen, der Genomevolution in Hydra, sowie mit der Hochdurchsatz-Transkriptionsanalyse von Hydra ESTs beschäftigten

Microrna response of primary human macrophages to Arcobacter Butzleri infection

The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in infectious diseases is becoming more and more apparent, and the use of miRNAs as a diagnostic tool and their therapeutic application has become the major focus of investigation. The aim of this study was to identify miRNAs involved in the immune signaling of macrophages in response to Arcobacter (A.) butzleri infection, an emerging foodborne pathogen causing gastroenteritis. Therefore, primary human macrophages were isolated and infected, and miRNA expression was studied by means of RNAseq. Analysis of the data revealed the expression of several miRNAs, which were previously associated with bacterial infections such as miR-155, miR-125, and miR-212. They were shown to play a key role in Toll-like receptor signaling where they act as fine-tuners to establish a balanced immune response. In addition, miRNAs which have yet not been identified during bacterial infections such as miR-3613, miR-2116, miR-671, miR-30d, and miR-629 were differentially regulated in A. butzleri-infected cells. Targets of these miRNAs accumulated in pathways such as apoptosis and endocytosis — processes that might be involved in A. butzleri pathogenesis. Our study contributes new findings about the interaction of A. butzleri with human innate immune cells helping to understand underlying regulatory mechanisms in macrophages during infection

Characterization of taxonomically restricted genes in a phylum-restricted cell type

Computational and functional genomic analyses in Hydra magnipapillata suggest that taxonomically-restricted genes are involved in the evolution of morphological novelties such as the cnidarian nematocyt

A Novel Gene Family Controls Species-Specific Morphological Traits in Hydra

Understanding the molecular events that underlie the evolution of morphological diversity is a major challenge in biology. Here, to identify genes whose expression correlates with species-specific morphologies, we compared transcriptomes of two closely related Hydra species. We find that species-specific differences in tentacle formation correlate with expression of a taxonomically restricted gene encoding a small secreted protein. We show that gain of function induces changes in morphology that mirror the phenotypic differences observed between species. These results suggest that “novel” genes may be involved in the generation of species-specific morphological traits