JaponicusDB: Rapid deployment of a model organism database for an emerging model species

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces japonicus has recently emerged as a powerful system for studying the evolution of essential cellular processes, drawing on similarities as well as key differences between S. japonicus and the related, well-established model Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We have deployed the open-source, modular code and tools originally developed for PomBase, the S. pombe model organism database (MOD), to create JaponicusDB (www.japonicusdb.org), a new MOD dedicated to S. japonicus. By providing a central resource with ready access to a growing body of experimental data, ontology-based curation, seamless browsing and querying, and the ability to integrate new data with existing knowledge, JaponicusDB supports fission yeast biologists to a far greater extent than any other source of S. japonicus data. JaponicusDB thus enables S. japonicus researchers to realise the full potential of studying a newly emerging model species, and illustrates the widely applicable power and utility of harnessing reusable PomBase code to build a comprehensive, community-maintainable repository of species-relevant knowledge.

GreeningDB: A Database of Host–Pathogen Protein–Protein Interactions and Annotation Features of the Bacteria Causing Huanglongbing HLB Disease

The Citrus genus comprises some of the most important and commonly cultivated fruit plants. Within the last decade, citrus greening disease (also known as huanglongbing or HLB) has emerged as the biggest threat for the citrus industry. This disease does not have a cure yet and, thus, many efforts have been made to find a solution to this devastating condition. There are challenges in the generation of high-yield resistant cultivars, in part due to the limited and sparse knowledge about the mechanisms that are used by the Liberibacter bacteria to proliferate the infection in Citrus plants. Here, we present GreeningDB, a database implemented to provide the annotation of Liberibacter proteomes, as well as the host–pathogen comparactomics tool, a novel platform to compare the predicted interactomes of two HLB host–pathogen systems. GreeningDB is built to deliver a user-friendly interface, including network visualization and links to other resources. We hope that by providing these characteristics, GreeningDB can become a central resource to retrieve HLB-related protein annotations, and thus, aid the community that is pursuing the development of molecular-based strategies to mitigate this disease’s impact. The database is freely available at http://bioinfo.usu.edu/GreeningDB/.

JaponicusDB: Rapid deployment of a model organism database for an emerging model species

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces japonicus has recently emerged as a powerful system for studying the evolution of essential cellular processes, drawing on similarities as well as key differences between S. japonicus and the related, well-established model Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We have deployed the open-source, modular code and tools originally developed for PomBase, the S. pombe model organism database (MOD), to create JaponicusDB (www.japonicusdb.org), a new MOD dedicated to S. japonicus. By providing a central resource with ready access to a growing body of experimental data, ontology-based curation, seamless browsing and querying, and the ability to integrate new data with existing knowledge, JaponicusDB supports fission yeast biologists to a far greater extent than any other source of S. japonicus data. JaponicusDB thus enables S. japonicus researchers to realise the full potential of studying a newly emerging model species, and illustrates the widely applicable power and utility of harnessing reusable PomBase code to build a comprehensive, community-maintainable repository of species-relevant knowledge.

'IF YOU CAN WORK FROM ANYWHERE, WHY WORK ANYWHERE ELSE?': FLEXIBLE CITIZENSHIP, REGIMES OF MOBILITY, AND THE DISCOURSE OF DIGITAL NOMADISM

Digital nomadism is a term that has entered the cultural lexicon relatively recently to describe a lifestyle unbound from the traditional structures and constraints of office work (Makimoto and Manners, 1997; Cook, 2020; Thompson, 2018). This identity is organized around the digital technologies and infrastructures that make “remote work” possible, allowing digital nomads to claim “location independence” and granting them the freedom to travel while working (Nash et al., 2018). Largely employed as freelancers or as self-styled entrepreneurs, digital nomads assert their independence from the traditional strictures of work through the digital technologies they use at the same time that they remain “plugged in” to the infrastructures, economies, and lifeworlds of Silicon Valley (McElroy, 2019, p. 216). As such, the digital nomad represents a key site to examine privileged transnationalism and the enduring forms of coloniality that inform contemporary “regimes of mobility” (Hayes and Pérez-Gañán, 2017; Glick Schiller and Salazar, 2013, p. 189). This paper considers how discourses of digital nomadism have been constructed, circulated, and leveraged by governments offering “digital nomad visas,” “remote work visas,” or “freelancer visas” to examine how regimes of mobility have been imagined and enacted. Utilizing discourse analysis to examine popular press articles, Instagram posts from the official accounts of tourism boards, and governmental websites, I examine the ways digital nomadism was constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how this lifestyle has been formalized and institutionalized. I argue that mobility itself has become a central resource through which nations compete for global capital accumulation.

Improving Research Patient Data Repositories from a Health Data Industry Viewpoint (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Electronic patient data are critical to clinical and translational science, and research patient data repositories (RPDRs) are a central resource for any work in biomedical data science. However, the data science ecosystem, due to its inherently transdisciplinary nature, poses challenges to existing RPDRs and demands expansions and new developments, calling for a wide variety of new functions and capabilities in the administrative, educational, and organizational domains. The power of data science in the business realm is tremendous. In business, it is already viewed as a critical resource, and this will likely occur in healthcare as well. This perspective focuses on best practices in developing RPDRs, and identifies areas which we believe have not received enough attention. These include deployment, contribution calculation, internal talent marketplaces, data partnerships, data sovereigns’ new capital assets, and cross-border data sharing.

A GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF BIM STANDARDS ACROSS THE GLOBE: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Building Information Modelling (BIM) represents a paradigm shift in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry as companies reposition themselves from a people, technology and process perspective to improve efficiency and quality. The aim of this paper is to identify and compare BIM standards, guidelines and templates from around the globe in order to provide an indicative central resource for BIM documentation and gaps in BIM standards. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research methodological approach was utilised, underpinned by document analysis of BIM standards developed in different countries across six continents. These findings are presented in tabular format along with illustrations to highlight documentation gaps, which form the basis of discussion. This research evaluates 13 countries’ BIM standards, guidelines and templates; the correlation of which presents relationships and synergy, including recommendations for the development of standards based on the gaps presented. Research findings provide a pivotal appreciation of the different levels of maturity – the discourse of which can act as a signpost for each countries reflection, viz: government, industry bodies or academic institution to help develop BIM standards to fill the gaps in contract, Employers Information Requirement (EIR), BIM Execution Plan (BEP) and design documentation.

Synchronization in demonstrations. Multimodal practices for instructing body knowledge

Demonstrations are a central resource for instructing body knowledge. They allow instructors to provide learners with a structured perceptual access to the performance of an activity. The present paper considers demonstrations as inherently social activities, in which not only the instructor but also the learners may participate. A particular form of co-participation is that learners synchronize their own bodily actions with the demonstration of the instructor. The paper examines two practices of synchronization in demonstrations. In emergent synchronizations the instructor invites the student(s) to synchronize, rather than request them to do so. In orchestrated synchronizations teachers actively pursue the students’ bodily synchronization. The two practices are typically used for different instructional purposes. While emergent synchronizations are typically used in corrective instructions, orchestrated synchronizations are typically used to instruct new knowledge. Based on a large corpus of instructions in dancing Argentine Tango, the paper uses multimodal interaction analysis to characterize both practices regarding their interactional organization, their functional properties and the resources used by the participants to establish synchronization.

Continuous presence of proto-cereals in Anatolia since 2.3 Ma, and their possible co-evolution with large herbivores and hominins

Cereals are a central resource for the human diet and are traditionally assumed to have evolved from wild grasses at the onset of the Neolithic under the pressure of agriculture. Here we demonstrate that cereals may have a significantly longer and more diverse lineage, based on the study of a 0–2.3 Ma, 601 m long sedimentary core from Lake Acıgöl (South-West Anatolia). Pollen characteristic of cereals is abundant throughout the sedimentary sequence. The presence of large lakes within this arid bioclimatic zone led to the concentration of large herbivore herds, as indicated by the continuous occurrence of coprophilous fungi spores in the record. Our hypothesis is that the effects of overgrazing on soils and herbaceous stratum, during this long period, led to genetic modifications of the Poaceae taxa and to the appearance of proto-cereals. The simultaneous presence of hominins is attested as early as about 1.4 Ma in the lake vicinity, and 1.8 Ma in Georgia and Levant. These ancient hominins probably benefited from the availability of these proto-cereals, rich in nutrients, as well as various other edible plants, opening the way, in this region of the Middle East, to a process of domestication, which reached its full development during the Neolithic.

Profesjonelle fellesskap på ungdomstrinnet som del av skolens utvikling

Professional communities at the lower secondary level as part of the school’s development This chapter invites to a discussion of how TALIS 2018 data about professional communities relates to recent policy development aimed at school development. Teacher collaboration is considered a central resource in the individual school’s organization, and exchange of experience with colleagues is often highlighted when teachers are asked about their most important source of learning and development. Policy development in Norway has aimed at strengthening professional collaboration for quality development of schools, especially at the lower secondary level. The chapter highlights some results from TALIS 2018 that show how teachers at the lower secondary level collaborate and how school leaders provide feedback and assessments to support and facilitate the teachers’ further professional development by asking what the characteristics of collaboration at the lower secondary level are; and what kind of measures school leaders are implementing to support teachers who need follow-up. Answers to these questions are compared to Norwegian findings from TALIS 2008 and TALIS 2013.

CEDAR, an online resource for the reporting and exploration of complexome profiling data

Complexome profiling is an emerging 'omics approach that systematically interrogates the composition of protein complexes (the complexome) of a sample, by combining biochemical separation of native protein complexes with mass-spectrometry based quantitation proteomics. The resulting fractionation profiles hold comprehensive information on the abundance and composition of the complexome, and have a high potential for reuse by experimental and computational researchers. However, the lack of a central resource that provides access to these data, reported with adequate descriptions and an analysis tool, has limited their reuse. Therefore, we established the ComplexomE profiling DAta Resource (CEDAR, www3.cmbi.umcn.nl/cedar/), an openly accessible database for depositing and exploring mass spectrometry data from complexome profiling studies. Compatibility and reusability of the data is ensured by a standardized data and reporting format containing the "minimum information required for a complexome profiling experiment" (MIACE). The data can be accessed through a user-friendly web interface, as well as programmatically using the REST API portal. Additionally, all complexome profiles available on CEDAR can be inspected directly on the website with the profile viewer tool that allows the detection of correlated profile sand inference of potential complexes. In conclusion, CEDAR is a unique,growing and invaluable resource for the study of protein complex composition and dynamics across biological systems.