Deep Relationships Research Articles

Differential amino acid usage leads to ubiquitous edge effect in proteomes across domains of life that can be explained by amino acid secondary structure propensities

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and enzymes which are essential for life. Understanding amino acid usage offers insights into protein function and molecular mechanisms underlying life histories. However, genome-wide patterns of amino acid usage across domains of life remain poorly understood. Here, we analysed the proteomes of 5590 species across four domains and found that only a few amino acids are consistently the most and least used. This differential usage results in lower amino acid usage diversity at the most and least frequent ranks, creating a ubiquitous inverted U-shape pattern of amino acid diversity and rank which we call an ‘edge effect’ across proteomes and domains of life. This effect likely stems from protein secondary structural constraints, not the evolutionary chronology of amino acid incorporation into the genetic code, highlighting the functional rather than evolutionary influences on amino acid usage. We also tested other contemporary hypotheses regarding amino acid usage in proteomes and found that amino acid usage varies across life’s domains and is only weakly influenced by growth temperature. Our findings reveal a novel and pervasive amino acid usage pattern across genomes with the potential to help us probe deep evolutionary relationships and advance synthetic biology.

Three Novel Spider Genomes Unveil Spidroin Diversification and Hox Cluster Architecture: Ryuthela nishihirai (Liphistiidae), Uloborus plumipes (Uloboridae) and Cheiracanthium punctorium (Cheiracanthiidae).

Spiders are a hyperdiverse taxon and among the most abundant predators in nearly all terrestrial habitats. Their success is often attributed to key developments in their evolution such as silk and venom production and major apomorphies such as a whole-genome duplication. Resolving deep relationships within the spider tree of life has been historically challenging, making it difficult to measure the relative importance of these novelties for spider evolution. Whole-genome data offer an essential resource in these efforts, but also for functional genomic studies. Here, we present de novo assemblies for three spider species: Ryuthela nishihirai (Liphistiidae), a representative of the ancient Mesothelae, the suborder that is sister to all other extant spiders; Uloborus plumipes (Uloboridae), a cribellate orbweaver whose phylogenetic placement is especially challenging; and Cheiracanthium punctorium (Cheiracanthiidae), which represents only the second family to be sequenced in the hyperdiverse Dionycha clade. These genomes fill critical gaps in the spider tree of life. Using these novel genomes along with 25 previously published ones, we examine the evolutionary history of spidroin gene and structural hox cluster diversity. Our assemblies provide critical genomic resources to facilitate deeper investigations into spider evolution. The near chromosome-level genome of the 'living fossil' R. nishihirai represents an especially important step forward, offering new insights into the origins of spider traits.

An Analysis of Combined Molecular Weight and Hydrophobicity Similarity between the Amino Acid Sequences of Spike Protein Receptor Binding Domains of Betacoronaviruses and Functionally Similar Sequences from Other Virus Families

Recently, we proposed a new method, based on protein profiles derived from physicochemical dynamic time warping (PCDTW), to functionally/structurally classify coronavirus spike protein receptor binding domains (RBD). Our method, as used herein, uses waveforms derived from two physicochemical properties of amino acids (molecular weight and hydrophobicity (MWHP)) and is designed to reach into the twilight zone of homology, and therefore, has the potential to reveal structural/functional relationships and potentially homologous relationships over greater evolutionary time spans than standard primary sequence alignment-based techniques. One potential application of our method is inferring deep evolutionary relationships such as those between the RBD of the spike protein of betacoronaviruses and functionally similar proteins found in other families of viruses, a task that is extremely difficult, if not impossible, using standard multiple alignment-based techniques. Here, we applied PCDTW to compare members of four divergent families of viruses to betacoronaviruses in terms of MWHP physicochemical similarity of their RBDs. We hypothesized that some members of the families Arteriviridae, Astroviridae, Reoviridae (both from the genera rotavirus and orthoreovirus considered separately), and Toroviridae would show greater physicochemical similarity to betacoronaviruses in protein regions similar to the RBD of the betacoronavirus spike protein than they do to other members of their respective taxonomic groups. This was confirmed to varying degrees in each of our analyses. Three arteriviruses (the glycoprotein-2 sequences) clustered more closely with ACE2-binding betacoronaviruses than to other arteriviruses, and a clade of 33 toroviruses was found embedded within a clade of non-ACE2-binding betacoronaviruses, indicating potentially shared structure/function of RBDs between betacoronaviruses and members of other virus clades.

Phylogenomics of Bivalvia Using Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) Reveal New Topologies for Pteriomorphia and Imparidentia.

Despite significant advances in phylogenetics over the past decades, the deep relationships within Bivalvia (phylum Mollusca) remain inconclusive. Previous efforts based on morphology or several genes have failed to resolve many key nodes in the phylogeny of Bivalvia. Advances have been made recently using transcriptome data, but the phylogenetic relationships within Bivalvia historically lacked consensus, especially within Pteriomorphia and Imparidentia. Here, we inferred the relationships of key lineages within Bivalvia using matrices generated from specifically designed ultraconserved elements (UCEs) with 16 available genomic resources and 85 newly sequenced specimens from 55 families. Our new probes (Bivalve UCE 2k v.1) for target sequencing captured an average of 849 UCEs with 1085-bp in mean length from in vitro experiments. Our results introduced novel schemes from six major clades (Protobranchina, Pteriomorphia, Palaeoheterodonta, Archiheterodonta, Anomalodesmata and Imparidentia), though some inner nodes were poorly resolved, such as paraphyletic Heterodonta in some topologies potentially due to insufficient taxon sampling. The resolution increased when analyzing specific matrices for Pteriomorphia and Imparidentia. We recovered three Pteriomorphia topologies different from previously published trees, with the strongest support for ((Ostreida + (Arcida + Mytilida)) + (Pectinida + (Limida + Pectinida))). Limida were nested within Pectinida, warranting further studies. For Imparidentia, our results strongly supported the new hypothesis of (Galeommatida + (Adapedonta + Cardiida)), while the possible non-monophyly of Lucinida was inferred but poorly supported. Overall, our results provide important insights into the phylogeny of Bivalvia and show that target enrichment sequencing of UCEs can be broadly applied to study both deep and shallow phylogenetic relationships.

The phylogeny of the Triticeae: Resolution and phylogenetic conflict based on genomewide nuclear loci.

The wheat tribe, Triticeae, has been the subject of molecular phylogenetic analyses for nearly three decades, and extensive phylogenetic conflict has been apparent from the earliest comparisons among DNA-based data sets. While most previous analyses focused primarily on nuclear vs. chloroplast DNA conflict, the present analysis provides a broader picture of conflict among nuclear loci throughout the tribe. Exon data were generated from over 1000 nuclear loci using targeted sequence capture with custom baits, and nearly complete chloroplast genome sequences were recovered. Phylogenetic conflict was assessed among the trees from the chloroplast genomes, the concatenated nuclear loci, and a series of nuclear-locus subsets guided by Hordeum chromosome gene maps. At the intergeneric level, the analyses collectively revealed a few broadly consistent relationships. However, the prevailing pattern was one of extensive phylogenetic conflict throughout the tribe, among both deep and shallow branches, and with the extent of the conflict varying among data subsets. The results suggest continual introgression or lineage sorting within and among the named lineages of the Triticeae, shaping both deep and shallow relationships in the tribe.

Flourishing at the end of life

Flourishing is an increasingly common construct employed in the study of human wellbeing. But its appropriateness as a framework of wellbeing at certain stages of life is contested. In this paper, we consider to what extent it is possible for someone to flourish at the end of life. People with terminal illness often experience significant and protracted pain and suffering especially when they opt for treatments that prolong life. Certain aspects of human goods, however, that are plausibly constitutive of flourishing—such as meaning and purpose, deep personal relationships, and character and virtue—can be uniquely realised when life is ending. We argue that there is a qualified sense in which one can flourish at the end of life but that one must make important modifications to the criteria implicit in conventional conceptions of flourishing. We close with a discussion of the empirical assessment of wellbeing at the end of life and explore the possibility of introducing a flourishing measure in palliative care practice.

We are doing it wrong: Putting homology before phylogeny in cyanobacterial taxonomy.

The rapid expansion of whole genome sequencing in bacterial taxonomy has revealed deep evolutionary relationships and speciation signals, but assembly methods often miss true nucleotide diversity in the ribosomal operons. Though it lacks sufficient phylogenetic signal at the species level, the 16S ribosomal RNA gene is still much used in bacterial taxonomy. In cyanobacterial taxonomy, comparisons of 16S-23S Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions are used to bridge this information gap. Although ITS rRNA region analyses are routinely being used to identify species, researchers often do not identify orthologous operons, which leads to improper comparisons. No method for delineating orthologous operon copies from paralogous ones has been established. A new method for recognizing orthologous ribosomal operons by quantifying the conserved paired nucleotides in a helical domain of the ITS, has been developed. The D1' Index quantifies differences in the ratio of pyrimidines to purines in paired nucleotide sequences of this helix. Comparing 111 operon sequences from 89 strains of Brasilonema, four orthologous operon types were identified. Plotting D1' Index values against the length of helices produced clear separation of orthologs. Most orthologous operons in this study were observed both with and without tRNA genes present. We hypothesize that genomic rearrangement, not gene duplication, is responsible for the variation among orthologs. This new method will allow cyanobacterial taxonomists to utilize ITS rRNA region data more correctly, preventing erroneous taxonomic hypotheses. Moreover, this work could assist genomicists in identifying and preserving evident sequence variability in ribosomal operons, which is an important proxy for evolution in prokaryotes.

Ultrasound Guided Internal Jugular Vein Acesss: Comparison Between Short Axis And Long Axis Technique

Abstract Background: Percutaneous techniques have transformed vascular cannulation. It has reduced the need for open procedures and the associatedwoundcomplications, but percutaneous techniques have made physicians dependent on relationships between surface anatomic landmarks and deep anatomic structures. Now, percutaneous central venous catheter insertion by physicians has a lesser complication rate. During central venous catheterization, the complications include infection, occlusion, thrombosis and mechanical complications. Aims and Objective: To relate the inner course of cannulating needle, familiarity of surface anatomic landmarks excludes the complication. Deep anatomic relationships visualization does not only improves the efficacy and safety of the procedure but also supplements the operator’s ability to identify difficult cannulations. The safety of internal jugular cannulations increases with ultrasound visualization. Central venous cathetrization (CVC) is done for hemodynamic monitoring (such as central venous pressure) long-term administration of fluids, antibiotics, total parental nutrition, and hemodialysis. Material and Methods: Most commonly, the internal jugular vein (IJV) is cannulated because of its relatively less complications and easy accessibility. Seldinger technique is used for IJV cannulation. Landmark-guided IJV cannulation is associated with a more number of complications compared to ultrasound-guided cannulation. Ultrasound-guided cannulation improves success rate, reduces the number of needle passes, and decreases complications. Two different real-time ultrasound-guided cannulations of IJV using a short axis/out-of-plane (SA) approach and a long axis/in plane (LA) approach are compared in the study. Hence, the present study was done at our tertiary care center to compare ultrasound-guided IJV access between SA and LA technique method with the number of attempts and complications. Results: It was observed in the present study that 4 (10%) patients in Long axis group had posterior wall puncture while 9 (22.5%) patients in short axis group had posterior wall puncture. Conclusion: Posterior wall puncture incidence is lesser in long axis group than short axis group.

Phylogenomic analyses of Blattodea combining traditional methods, incremental tree-building, and quality-aware support

Despite the many advances of the genomic era, there is a persistent problem in assessing the uncertainty of phylogenomic hypotheses. We see this in the recent history of phylogenetics for cockroaches and termites (Blattodea), where huge advances have been made, but there are still major inconsistencies between studies. To address this, we present a phylogenetic analysis of Blattodea that emphasizes identification and quantification of uncertainty. We analyze 1183 gene domains using three methods (multi-species coalescent inference, concatenation, and a supermatrix-supertree hybrid approach) and assess support for controversial relationships while considering data quality. The hybrid approach—here dubbed “tiered phylogenetic inference”—incorporates information about data quality into an incremental tree building framework. Leveraging this method, we are able to identify cases of low or misleading support that would not be possible otherwise, and explore them more thoroughly with follow-up tests. In particular, quality annotations pointed towards nodes with high bootstrap support that later turned out to have large ambiguities, sometimes resulting from low-quality data. We also clarify issues related to some recalcitrant nodes: Anaplectidae’s placement lacks unbiased signal, Ectobiidae s.s. and Anaplectoideini need greater taxon sampling, the deepest relationships among most Blaberidae lack signal. As a result, several previous phylogenetic uncertainties are now closer to being resolved (e.g., African and Malagasy “Rhabdoblatta” spp. are the sister to all other Blaberidae, and Oxyhaloinae is sister to the remaining Blaberidae). Overall, we argue for more approaches to quantifying support that take data quality into account to uncover the nature of recalcitrant nodes.

Air quality forecasting using a spatiotemporal hybrid deep learning model based on VMD–GAT–BiLSTM

The precise forecasting of air quality is of great significance as an integral component of early warning systems. This remains a formidable challenge owing to the limited information of emission source and the considerable uncertainties inherent in dynamic processes. To improve the accuracy of air quality forecasting, this work proposes a new spatiotemporal hybrid deep learning model based on variational mode decomposition (VMD), graph attention networks (GAT) and bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM), referred to as VMD–GAT–BiLSTM, for air quality forecasting. The proposed model initially employ a VMD to decompose original PM2.5 data into a series of relatively stable sub-sequences, thus reducing the influence of unknown factors on model prediction capabilities. For each sub-sequence, a GAT is then designed to explore deep spatial relationships among different monitoring stations. Next, a BiLSTM is utilized to learn the temporal features of each decomposed sub-sequence. Finally, the forecasting results of each decomposed sub-sequence are aggregated and summed as the final air quality prediction results. Experiment results on the collected Beijing air quality dataset show that the proposed model presents superior performance to other used methods on both short-term and long-term air quality forecasting tasks.

Pride of the East: Motorcycle Speedway, Transnational Encounters and Provincial Heartlands

AbstractFor a century, speedway has operated on a transnational basis. Its riders, competitions and machinery regularly traverse national and continental borders. The imposition of the Cold War's Iron Curtain did little to impede its growth. This article focuses on one of speedway's far‐flung and diverse provincial heartlands to show how the sport generated frequent transnational and transsystemic interactions and forged deep relationships that often stood in contrast to the prevailing trends of international politics. As one of speedway's ‘entangled peripheries’, rural East Anglia owes a debt of gratitude to Australasian pioneers. From the 1950s—decades before imported talent became commonplace in football—the region welcomed Scandinavian and Eastern Bloc riders and hosted visiting clubs and national representations from across the continent. Later, East Anglia became a bridgehead for the successful assault of communist‐built machinery on the Western market. These bold endeavours were not without controversy, as British riders voiced objections to foreign men and machines deemed a threat to their livelihoods. The Cold War's end accelerated existing trends and also created exciting new opportunities for itinerant East Anglians abroad. Archival material, conversations with the sport's foreign trailblazers and fans, Swedish and Czechoslovak sources, photographs and official publications serve to demonstrate speedway's enduring ability to forge unexpected ties and give voice to regions at the so‐called margins of twentieth‐century history.

Evolution across the adaptive landscape in a hyperdiverse beetle radiation

The extraordinary diversification of beetles on Earth is a textbook example of adaptive evolution. Yet, the tempo and drivers of this super-radiation remain largely unclear. Here, we address this problem by investigating macroevolutionary dynamics in darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), one of the most ecomorphologically diverse beetle families (with over 30,000 species). Using multiple genomic datasets and analytical approaches, we resolve the long-standing inconsistency over deep relationships in the family. In conjunction with a landmark-based dataset of body shape morphology, we show that the evolutionary history of darkling beetles is marked by ancient rapid radiations, frequent ecological transitions, and rapid bursts of morphological diversification. On a global scale, our analyses uncovered a significant pulse of phenotypic diversification proximal to the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) mass extinction and convergence of body shape associated with recurrent ecological specializations. On a regional scale, two major Australasian radiations, the Adeliini and the Heleine clade, exhibited contrasting patterns of ecomorphological diversification, representing phylogenetic niche conservatism versus adaptive radiation. Our findings align with the Simpsonian model of adaptive evolution across the macroevolutionary landscape and highlight a significant role of ecological opportunity in driving the immense ecomorphological diversity in a hyperdiverse beetle group.

Relationships Among the Bryophytes and Vascular Plants: A Case Study in Deep-Time Reconstruction

Relationships of the three bryophyte lineages (liverworts, mosses, and hornworts) to vascular plants is a pivotal question in the study of the origin and evolution of land plants. In recent decades, this question has been subjected to intense phylogenetic analyses using morphological characters, multigene DNA sequences, and genome structural characters. A tentative consensus, reached ten years ago, suggested that bryophytes are a paraphyletic group, with liverworts being sister to all other land plants and hornworts being sister to vascular plants. However, several more recent nuclear phylogenomic studies have concluded that bryophytes represent a monophyletic group that is sister to vascular plants. A discussion is presented here on strengths and weaknesses of different types of characters (morphological traits, nucleotide sequences, and genome structural arrangements) and their suitability for resolving deep phylogenetic relationships. Moreover, several criteria for credible phylogenetic reconstruction are proposed. Strong statistical support for reconstructed relationships should be derived from high-quality, independent characters selected for suitability to the particular question being addressed. The relationships inferred in a study should be congruent with those from as many other lines of phylogenetic evidence as possible. Any incongruities should be explicable by well-understood biological mechanisms. It is concluded that the relationships of the three bryophyte lineages to vascular plants should currently be viewed as unresolved. This is a difficult phylogenetic problem; the land plants underwent a rapid radiation a long time ago. Yet, further exploration of analytical methods and careful choice of characters should lead to the eventual elucidation of diversification patterns among early land plants.

Dissecting the Pandora’s box: preliminary phylogenomic insights into the internal and external relationships of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)

Abstract Stink bugs are invaluable models for macroevolutionary investigations owing to their astonishing ecological and morphological diversity. Nevertheless, such studies have been hampered by the absence of a solid phylogenetic hypothesis. Morphological and molecular studies based on Sanger data have found no consensus for the position of Pentatomidae, and the deep relationships within the family have been poorly resolved. These persistent uncertainties have cast the systematics of stink bugs into the metaphorical realm of a Pandora’s Box. Here, I conduct the first phylogenomic study focusing on pentatomids. Using public data, I aimed at testing the power of genome-scale data to resolve phylogenetic relationships within the family and to address the controversial position of the family within Pentatomoidea. Based on a dataset of 40 taxa and over 1,900 proteins, my results indicate the Pentatomidae as the sister group of all remaining families of Pentatomoidea, with an uncertainty of whether Plataspididae is included in this clade. Within Pentatomidae, my analyses confirm some previous findings, such as the monophyly of Asopinae and the relationship between Nezarini and Antestiini. On the other hand, most of the deep relationships within the family were strikingly different from previous works, for example, the Podopinae as the sister group of the Paleartic Carpocorini. My analyses confirm that the addition of massive amounts of data to phylogenetic studies may help achieve better supported trees for the stink bugs and allies. I argue that a solid and stable phylogeny-based classification will only be achieved with increased employment of -omics data.

Striking genetic homogeneity in the widespread South American bracken.

Bracken (Pteridium, Dennstaedtiaceae) is a cosmopolitan genus of aggressive disturbance colonizers that are toxic to agricultural livestock. The taxonomy of Pteridium has been treated in multiple schemes, ranging from one to six species worldwide, with numerous subspecies and varieties. Recent work has focused on the worldwide distribution and systematics of the bracken fern, but South America has been poorly represented. We present the first continent-wide sampling and analysis of Pteridium esculentum, a Southern Hemisphere diploid species. Within South America, P. esculentum has several morphotypes, distinguished into subspecies by variation in indument and lamina architecture. We used double digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRADSeq) to assess the phylogenetic relationships of P. esculentum subspecies. We found a striking genetic homogeneity in the species, being able to support only two morphotypes from molecular data: P. e. arachnoideum and P. e. campestre. We had high confidence for shallow and deep phylogenetic relationships, but less support for relationships among crown groups. We describe an east-west geographic pattern that would explain the relationships between populations; and, in contrast to previous studies, we detected differences with P. esculentum from Australia. These results will lay the foundations for studying variations in this species' behavior as a weed, as well as its impact on the production of agricultural livestock in South America.

Refuge and resilience: Being-together in a postapocalyptic era - the apocalyptic problematic in Western philosophy

This text presents a comprehensive overview of the author’s experiences and contributions to PESA, as well as the themes and concerns that have shaped their academic work. The lecture series, named in the author’s honour, aims to foster new thinking among emerging scholars. The author’s intellectual journey has been deeply influenced by the contemporary apocalyptic zeitgeist, which they frame as a series of local and global crises that underpin the spirit of the age. These crises encompass environmental degradation, geopolitical tensions, the erosion of democracy, and the potential for nuclear conflict. The author’s work in EPAT has been characterised by a commitment to innovation and inclusivity, with a focus on topics such as social justice, decolonization, and gender and subjectivity. The genre and methodology of collective writing and open peer review have been instrumental in nurturing the work of younger scholars. The author’s inaugural lecture, ‘Refuge and Resilience: Being-together in a post-apocalyptic era,’ explores the dynamics of being-together as a means of fostering deep relationships with the environment and biosphere, and as a source of resilience and cultural value. Four key themes are discussed: the apocalyptic problematic in modern Western philosophy, the philosophy of place, complexity and catastrophe, and ecopedagogies for living in the post-apocalyptic era. The author argues that apocalyptic philosophy can be used to unsettle the dominant worldview without resorting to fanaticism or fundamentalism, and that the concept of ‘Being-together’ can provide a framework for community, renewal, and resilience. The label ‘post-apocalyptic philosophy’ is proposed as a means of moving beyond the determinism of apocalyptic thinking. The author concludes by suggesting that the themes of Being-together offer a basis for the development of a new curriculum.

A Novel Approach to Comparative RNA-Seq Does Not Support a Conserved Set of Orthologs Underlying Animal Regeneration.

Molecular studies of animal regeneration typically focus on conserved genes and signaling pathways that underlie morphogenesis. To date, a holistic analysis of gene expression across animals has not been attempted, as it presents a suite of problems related to differences in experimental design and gene homology. By combining orthology analyses with a novel statistical method for testing gene enrichment across large data sets, we are able to test whether tissue regeneration across animals shares transcriptional regulation. We applied this method to a meta-analysis of six publicly available RNA-Seq data sets from diverse examples of animal regeneration. We recovered 160 conserved orthologous gene clusters, which are enriched in structural genes as opposed to those regulating morphogenesis. A breakdown of gene presence/absence provides limited support for the conservation of pathways typically implicated in regeneration, such as Wnt signaling and cell pluripotency pathways. Such pathways are only conserved if we permit large amounts of paralog switching through evolution. Overall, our analysis does not support the hypothesis that a shared set of ancestral genes underlie regeneration mechanisms in animals. After applying the same method to heat shock studies and getting similar results, we raise broader questions about the ability of comparative RNA-Seq to reveal conserved gene pathways across deep evolutionary relationships.

Aspect based sentiment analysis using a novel ensemble deep network

Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) is a fine-grained task in natural language processing, which aims to predict the sentiment polarity of several parts of a sentence or document. The essential aspect of sentiment polarity and global context have deep relationships that have not received enough attention. This research work design and develops a novel ensemble deep network (EDN) which comprises the various network and integrated to enhance the model performance. In the proposed work the words of the input sentence are converted into word vectors using the optimised bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model and an optimised BERT-graph neural networks (GNN) model with convolutions is built that analyses the ABSA of the input sentence. The optimised GNN model with convolutions for context-based word representations is developed for the word-vector embedding. We propose a novel EDN for an ABSA model for optimised BERT over GNN with convolutions. The proposed ensemble deep network proposed system (EDN-PS) is evaluated with various existing techniques and results are plotted in terms of metrics for accuracy and F1- score, concluding that the proposed EDN-PS ensures better performance in comparison with the existing model.

KFEX-N : A table-text data question-answering model based on knowledge-fusion encoder and EX-N tree decoder

Answering questions about hybrid data combining tables and text is challenging. Recent research has employed encoder-tree decoder frameworks to simulate the reasoning process of arithmetic expressions for generating answers. However, this approach overlooks the inherent diversity of expressions; there might be multiple valid reasoning paths, leading to a decrease in the accuracy of inferred expression trees. Moreover, encoders, lacking rich domain knowledge, struggle to capture deep relationships between questions and supporting evidence; this limitation results in models making errors when selecting operation units. In this paper, we propose a Knowledge-Fusion encoder and EX-N tree decoder table-text data question-answering model(KFEX-N). During the encoding process, the integration of traditional encoders with cross-fusion encoders forms a knowledge-fusion encoder, endowing the model with rich domain knowledge and enhancing its understanding of the operational units required to answer questions. Additionally, we propose an EX-N tree decoder. It reduces the diversity of inference paths through a constrained structure and mitigates the occurrence of final answer errors resulting from decoding errors. We validate our model using publicly available Table-Text QA datasets (TAT-QA and Fin-QA) and achieve state-of-the-art performance.

Privacy versus intimacy: Social interactions in Norway

Based on 71 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with Turkey-originated migrants who live in Norway, this article discusses whether and what kinds of differences Turkish migrants in Norway perceive in the notions of privacy and intimacy between the Turkish and Norwegian contexts, and the implications of this perceived difference for their social interactions in Norway. While many of them value the social recognition of the right to privacy in Norway, they also think that avoidance of asking personal questions creates barriers in establishing close relationships and intimacy. For them, this contrasts with Turkey, where even strangers can easily ask personal questions or make comments that violate others’ privacy, but where people can easily establish warm, close, and deeper relationships. While they think that Norwegians are generally distant and reserved in interpersonal relationships, they find them more distant in their relationships with non-Norwegians. They think that the suspicion towards and fear of foreigners goes together with Norwegian people’s preference to interact with people who are very similar to them. Based on the experiences and comparisons of these migrants who have lived in (at least) two country contexts, this article discusses the relationship between privacy and intimacy as one where the expansion of the former weakens the latter. Considering privacy as a process of boundary regulation where individuals control how much contact they will maintain with others, culturally induced differences in expectations about where to draw that boundary creates barriers in communication between individuals who were socialized in different country contexts.