Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neisseria gonorrhoeae prepilin export studied in Escherichia coli

The pilE gene of Neisseria gonorrhoeae MS11 and a series of pilE-phoA gene fusions were expressed in Escherichia coli. The PhoA hybrid proteins were shown to be located in the membrane fraction of the cells, and the prepilin product of the pilE gene was shown to be located exclusively in the cytoplasmic membrane. Analysis of the prepilin-PhoA hybrids showed that the first 20 residues of prepilin can function as an efficient export (signal) sequence. This segment of prepilin includes an unbroken sequence of 8 hydrophobic or neutral residues that form the N-terminal half of a 16-residue hydrophobic region of prepilin. Neither prepilin nor the prepilin-PhoA hybrids were processed by E. coli leader peptidase despite the presence of two consensus cleavage sites for this enzyme just after this hydrophobic region. Comparisons of the specific molecular activities of the four prepilin-PhoA hybrids and analysis of their susceptibility to proteolysis by trypsin and proteinase K in spheroplasts allow us to propose two models for the topology of prepilin in the E. coli cytoplasmic membrane. The bulk of the evidence supports the simplest of the two models, in which prepilin is anchored in the membrane solely by the N-terminal hydrophobic domain, with the extreme N terminus facing the cytoplasm and the longer C terminus facing the periplasm.
Robust Message-Passing for Statistical Inference in Sensor Networks

Large-scale sensor network applications require in-network processing and data fusion to compute statistically relevant summaries of the sensed measurements. This paper studies distributed message-passing algorithms, in which neighboring nodes in the network pass local information relevant to a global computation, for performing statistical inference. We focus on the class of reweighted belief propagation (RBP) algorithms, which includes as special cases the standard sum-product and max-product algorithms for general networks with cycles, but in contrast to standard algorithms has attractive theoretical properties (uniqueness of fixed points, convergence, and robustness). Our main contribution is to design and implement a practical and modular architecture for implementing RBP algorithms in real networks. In addition, we show how intelligent scheduling of RBP messages can be used to minimize communication between motes and prolong the lifetime of the network. Our simulation and Mica2 mote deployment indicate that the proposed algorithms achieve accurate results despite real- world problems such as dying motes, dead and asymmetric links, and dropped messages. Overall, the class of RBP provides an ideal fit for sensor networks due to their distributed nature, requiring only local knowledge and coordination, and little requirements on other services such as reliable transmission.
Opinions and Expectations of Parents on Integration of Mobile Technologies to Education and School Family Cooperation

Abstract— This study underlines the importance of mobile technologies in school family cooperation process. The aim is to specify expectations from mobile technologies and parent’s opinions and capacity of mobile learning whose children attend to elementary and primary schools at Nicosia, TRNC. In this study which is conducted in a survey model frame, 790 parents involved in the study group to specify parent’s level of using mobile tools, their opinions on usage of mobile devices in an educational purpose and on improvement of school-family cooperation with mobile technologies.In the study, a 2 dimensioned survey form used as data collection tool and gathered data processed appropiately to statistical teqniques with SPSS 21 package application. In data analysis, frequency, percentage values, t-test and Kruskal-Wallis tests are used. This is confirmed that parent’s opinion on the usage of mobile devices in an educational pupose is generally positive. On the other hand, this is also clear that the parent’s opinions on school-family cooperation and family participation with mobile technologies are positive. Parents stated that they can take education and information from relevant people of school with mobile technologies on child development and education. Also they specified the necessity of communicating with mobile technologies to take school-family cooperation to an advanced level.
The N=2(4) string is self-dual N=4 Yang-Mills

N=2 string amplitudes, when required to have the Lorentz covariance of the equivalent N=4 string, describe a self-dual form of N=4 super Yang-Mills in 2+2 dimensions. Spin-independent couplings and the ghost nature of SO(2,2) spacetime make it a topological-like theory with vanishing loop corrections.
Automated Criminal Link Analysis Based on Domain Knowledge

Link (association) analysis has been used in the criminal justice domain to search large datasets for associations between crime entities in order to facilitate crime investigations. However, link analysis still faces many challenging problems, such as information overload, high search complexity, and heavy reliance on domain knowledge. To address these challenges, this article proposes several techniques for automated, effective, and efficient link analysis. These techniques include the co-occurrence analysis, the shortest path algorithm, and a heuristic approach to identifying associations and determining their importance. We developed a prototype system called CrimeLink Explorer based on the proposed techniques. Results of a user study with 10 crime investigators from the Tucson Police Department showed that our system could help subjects conduct link analysis more efficiently than traditional single-level link analysis tools. Moreover, subjects believed that association paths found based on the heuristic approach were more accurate than those found based solely on the co-occurrence analysis and that the automated link analysis system would be of great help in crime investigations.
Characterization of bond strength of monolithic two metal layer systems

The in-pile performance of nuclear fuel plates is strongly influenced by the mechanical contact between fuel and cladding. Today, there is not much information available about the bond strength of two layer systems typical for monolithic fuel plates. The bond strength is considered to be a plausible indicator for the quality of the mechanical contact. Using tensile tests, the bond strength of the following material combinations were examined: fuel / cladding, fuel / diffusion barrier and diffusion barrier / cladding. Double layer foils, consisting of uraniummolybdenum alloy with 8 wt. % Mo (DU-8Mo) as fuel surrogate, Al 1050 as cladding and Ti, Nb or Zr as diffusion barrier materials were used. They were produced by sputtering. Beforehand, the behaviour of the adhesive used to mount the samples onto the specimen holders has been examined. Bond strengths of DU-8Mo on Ti and Nb larger than 70 MPa have been achieved.
Evidence for Holistic Processing of Faces Viewed as Photographic Negatives

Inversion and photographic negation both impair face recognition. Inversion seems to disrupt processing of the spatial relationship between facial features (‘relational’ processing) which normally occurs with upright faces and which facilitates their recognition. It remains unclear why negation affects recognition. To find out if negation impairs relational processing, we investigated whether negative faces are subject to the ‘chimeric-face effect’. Recognition of the top half of a composite face (constructed from top and bottom halves of different faces) is difficult when the face is upright, but not when it is inverted. To perform this task successfully, the bottom half of the face has to be disregarded, but the relational processing which normally occurs with upright faces makes this difficult. Inversion reduces relational processing and thus facilitates performance on this particular task. In our experiments, subjects saw pairs of chimeric faces and had to decide whether or not the top halves were identical. On half the trials the two chimeras had identical tops; on the remaining trials the top halves were different. (The bottom halves were always different.) All permutations of orientation (upright or inverted) and luminance (normal or negative) were used. In experiment 1, each pair of ‘identical’ top halves were the same in all respects. Experiment 2 used differently oriented views of the same person, to preclude matches being based on incidental features of the images rather than the faces displayed within them. In both experiments, similar chimeric-face effects were obtained with both positive and negative faces, implying that negative faces evoke some form of relational processing. It is argued that there may be more than one kind of relational processing involved in face recognition: the ‘chimeric-face effect’ may reflect an initial ‘holistic’ processing which binds facial features into a ‘Gestalt’, rather than being a demonstration of the configurational processing involved in individual recognition.
New Understanding on Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of g-C3N4/BiPO4 Heterojunctions by Effective Interfacial Coupling

Although g-C3N4/BiPO4 heterojunctions have shown high photocatalytic performance experimentally, understanding is far from satisfactory on the relevance of the interlayer interaction and energy levels at interface. Herein, the energy level alignment at g-C3N4/BiPO4 interface is systematically explored by first-principles calculations incorporating semiempirical dispersion-correction schemes. The results indicate that a stable interface with the chemical adsorption can be formed between g-C3N4 and BiPO4. Interestingly, a typical type-II band alignment at g-C3N4/BiPO4 interface is found based on the analysis of the energy band structures and work functions, where the valence and conduction band edges of the BiPO4 layer are higher than those of the g-C3N4 layer after the actual contact of BiPO4 and g-C3N4, respectively. Especially, both charge density difference and Mulliken population show that a built-in electric field is formed with the direction from g-C3N4 to BiPO4 after interfacial equilibrium, and fac.
Prediction of long-term creep behaviour of Grade 91 steel at 873 K in the framework of microstructure-based creep damage mechanics approach

A detailed analysis has been performed for the prediction of long-term creep behaviour of tempered martensitic Grade 91 steel at 873 K using the microstructure-based creep damage mechanics approach. Necessary modifications have been made into the original kinetic creep law proposed by Dyson and McLean in order to account for the influence of microstructural damages arising from the coarsening of M23C6 and conversion of useful MX precipitates into deleterious Z-phase on creep behaviour of the steel. An exponential rate relationship has been introduced for the evolution of number density of MX precipitates with time. It has been shown that the developed model adequately predicts the experimental long-term creep strain–time as well as creep rate-time data. The role of Z-phase on long-term creep behaviour of Grade 91 steel has also been discussed.
Comparison of two working memory test paradigms: correlation with academic performance in school-aged children

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two different working memory task paradigms and academic achievement. Participants were 202 Australian primary-school children who were assessed on the Complex Auditory Span Evaluation (CASE) - a dual-task paradigm - and a reverse digit span paradigm, the number memory reversed test (NMR). Performance was correlated against the participants’ National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results. Both the CASE and NMR were significant predictors of academic ability in literacy and numeracy. Whereas there was a significant correlation between the CASE and NMR, the relationship was weak (r=0.18, p=0.012). It was concluded that, although both types of test are related to academic achievement, NMR and dual-task paradigm tasks may be differentially sensitive to the working memory abilities required in different real-world situations. This result has implications for use of such tasks to predict academic performance.
APLF (C2orf13) Is a Novel Human Protein Involved in the Cellular Response to Chromosomal DNA Strand Breaks

ABSTRACT Aprataxin and polynucleotide kinase (PNK) are DNA end processing factors that are recruited into the DNA single- and double-strand break repair machinery through phosphorylation-specific interactions with XRCC1 and XRCC4, respectively. These interactions are mediated through a divergent class of forkhead-associated (FHA) domain that binds to peptide sequences in XRCC1 and XRCC4 that are phosphorylated by casein kinase 2 (CK2). Here, we identify the product of the uncharacterized open reading frame C2orf13 as a novel member of this FHA domain family of proteins and we denote this protein APLF (aprataxin- and PNK-like factor). We show that APLF interacts with XRCC1 in vivo and in vitro in a manner that is stimulated by CK2. Yeast two-hybrid analyses suggest that APLF also interacts with the double-strand break repair proteins XRCC4 and XRCC5 (Ku86). We also show that endogenous and yellow fluorescent protein-tagged APLF accumulates at sites of H2O2 or UVA laser-induced chromosomal DNA damage and that this is achieved through at least two mechanisms: one that requires the FHA domain-mediated interaction with XRCC1 and a second that is independent of XRCC1 but requires a novel type of zinc finger motif located at the C terminus of APLF. Finally, we demonstrate that APLF is phosphorylated in a DNA damage- and ATM-dependent manner and that the depletion of APLF from noncycling human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells reduces rates of chromosomal DNA strand break repair following ionizing radiation. These data identify APLF as a novel component of the cellular response to DNA strand breaks in human cells.
On the Performance Analysis and Relay Algorithm Design in Social-Aware D2D Cooperated Communications

It has been well-established that Device-to-device (D2D) communication underlying cellular networks can improve network radio resource efficiency and provide higher transmission data rates to devices in proximity. In this work, we propose a cooperative system model. Three relay selection schemes are compared under such model. The Distance-based Relay Selection considers only distance for optimal relay selection, Social-Based Relay Selection scheme choose relays only depends on social relation, and Hybrid Relay Selection scheme includes both distance and social relation factors. Simulation results show that the hybrid relay-selection schemes can greatly improve the performance of D2D cooperative communications.
Design and evaluation of a 10 MHz gallium nitride based 42 V DC-DC converter

Gallium nitride (GaN) based power devices are becoming common place due to their ability to achieve higher efficiencies and higher switching frequencies than is possible with silicon (Si) power MOSFETs. With discrete eGaN® FETs capable of switching at slew rates beyond 40V/ns, the system performance is greatly impacted by aspects outside the power devices, such as high speed gate drivers and printed circuit board (PCB) layout. In this paper, these limitations are identified and discussed while demonstrating the ability of new family of high frequency enhancement mode gallium nitride power transistors. These devices were designed to address high-frequency hard-switching power applications not practical with Si MOSFETs, thus enabling applications requiring high-frequency at higher voltages. As demonstrator a 42 V, 10 MHz, 40 W buck converter suitable for envelope tracking is presented showing a peak efficiency of over 89%.
Comparison of various periodograms for sinusoid detection and frequency estimation

With the advent of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm, the periodogram and its variants such as the Bartlett's procedure and Welch method, have become very popular for spectral analysis. However, there has not been a thorough comparison of the detection and estimation performances of these methods. Different forms of the periodogram are studied here for single real tone detection and frequency estimation in the presence of white Gaussian noise. The threshold effect in frequency estimation, that is, when the estimation errors become several orders of magnitude greater than the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), is also investigated. It is shown that the standard periodogram gives the optimum detection performance for a pure tone while the Welch method is the best detector when there is phase instability in the sinusoid. As expected, since the conventional periodogram is a maximum likelihood estimator of frequency, it generally provides the minimum mean square frequency estimation errors.
Hearing Restoration with Auditory Brainstem Implant in Three Children with Cochlear Nerve Aplasia

Objective To verify the possibility of auditory habilitation in children with aplasia and hypoplasia of the cochlear nerve by direct electrical stimulation of the cochlear nuclei with an auditory brainstem implant. Study Design Retrospective case review. Setting Study conducted at the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department of the University of Verona, Italy. Patients Three children, aged 4, 3, and 2 years, respectively, with severe bilateral cochlear malformations and cochlear nerve aplasia have received an auditory brainstem implant at this institution in the past 2 years. Intervention The classic retrosigmoid approach was used. Correct positioning of the electrodes was evaluated using electric auditory brainstem responses and neural response telemetry. Before the patients were discharged, high-resolution computed tomography with a bone algorithm reconstruction technique was performed to evaluate electrode placement. The auditory brainstem implant was activated 30 to 60 days after implantation. Results No postoperative complications were observed. To date, 21, 18, and 8 electrodes, respectively, have been activated in the three children. The first patient, 12 months after activation, had achieved good environmental sound awareness, good speech detection, and some speech recognition. The second child, 8 months after activation, had achieved good environmental sound awareness and moderate speech detection. The third patient, 1 month after activation, had obtained good environmental sound awareness. Conclusion This study indicates that auditory brainstem implantation is technically feasible in children with cochlear nerve aplasia. The early results suggest the possibility of achieving auditory habilitation with auditory brainstem implantation in this population.
A Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique for Partially Shaded Photovoltaic Systems in Microgrids

A modified fuzzy-logic controller for maximum power point (MPP) tracking is proposed to increase photovoltaic (PV) system performance during partially shaded conditions. Instead of perturbing and observing the PV system MPP, the controller scans and stores the maximum power during the perturbing and observing procedures. The controller offers accurate convergence to the global maximum operating point under different partial shadowing conditions. A mathematical model of the PV system under partial shadowing conditions is derived. To validate the proposed modified fuzzy-logic-based controller, simulation and experimentation results are provided.
Abcb10 Role in Heme Biosynthesis In Vivo: Abcb10 Knockout in Mice Causes Anemia with Protoporphyrin IX and Iron Accumulation

ABSTRACT Abcb10, member 10 of the ABC transporter family, is reportedly a part of a complex in the mitochondrial inner membrane with mitoferrin-1 (Slc25a37) and ferrochelatase (Fech) and is responsible for heme biosynthesis in utero. However, it is unclear whether loss of Abcb10 causes pathological changes in adult mice. Here, we show that Abcb10−/− mice lack heme biosynthesis and erythropoiesis abilities and die in midgestation. Moreover, we generated Abcb10F/−; Mx1-Cre mice, with Abcb10 in hematopoietic cells deleted, which showed accumulation of protoporphyrin IX and maturation arrest in reticulocytes. Electron microscopy images of Abcb10−/− hematopoietic cells showed a marked increase of iron deposits at the mitochondria. These results suggest a critical role for Abcb10 in heme biosynthesis and provide new insights into the pathogenesis of erythropoietic protoporphyria and sideroblastic anemia.
The Depression Initiative. Description of a collaborative care model for depression and of the factors influencing its implementation in the primary care setting in the Netherlands

Background In the Depression Initiative, a promising collaborative care model for depression that was developed in the US was adapted for implementation in the Netherlands. Aim Description of a collaborative care model for major depressive disorder (MDD) and of the factors influencing its implementation in the primary care setting in the Netherlands. Data sources Data collected during the preparation phase of the CC:DIP trial of the Depression Initiative, literature, policy documents, information sheets from professional associations. Results Factors facilitating the implementation of the collaborative care model are continuous supervision of the care managers by the consultant psychiatrist and the trainers, a supportive web-based tracking system and the new reimbursement system that allows for introduction of a mental health care-practice nurse (MHC-PN) in the general practices and coverage of the treatment costs. Impeding factors might be the relatively high percentage of solo-primary care practices, the small percentage of professionals that are located in the same building, unfamiliarity with the concept of collaboration as required for collaborative care, the reimbursement system that demands regular negotiations between each health care provider and the insurance companies and the reluctance general practitioners might feel to expand their responsibility for their depressed patients. Conclusion Implementation of the collaborative care model in the Netherlands requires extensive training and supervision on micro level, facilitation of reimbursement on meso- and macro level and structural effort to change the treatment culture for chronic mental disorders in the primary care setting.
Linking the kingdom: enriched access to a historiographical text

Digital history is a branch of digital humanities concerned using ICT to improve study of history. Linked Data provides a way of effective enriched digital access to scientific texts about history (historiographies). In this paper, we present a method for connecting a historiographical text to the Linked Data cloud. We present the method and tools that we use in each of the method's steps. We focus on one extensive case study: the enriched access of an important work of Dutch World War II historiography "Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog". We describe the digitization and present two sources of structured knowledge that link to individual text sources, retrievable on the Web of Data. The first is the manually constructed and highly curated "Back of the Book Index". The second is a list of extracted Named Entities. We compare both structured sources as stepping stones to the Web of Data and present a number of use cases relevant for both historical researchers as well as for the general public.