Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pleiotropic Effects of Deubiquitinating Enzyme Ubp5 on Growth and Pathogenesis of Cryptococcus neoformans

Ubiquitination is a reversible protein modification that influences various cellular processes in eukaryotic cells. Deubiquitinating enzymes remove ubiquitin, maintain ubiquitin homeostasis and regulate protein degradation via the ubiquitination pathway. Cryptococcus neoformans is an important basidiomycete pathogen that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis primarily in the immunocompromised population. In order to understand the possible influence deubiquitinases have on growth and virulence of the model pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, we generated deletion mutants of seven putative deubiquitinase genes. Compared to other deubiquitinating enzyme mutants, a ubp5Δ mutant exhibited severely attenuated virulence and many distinct phenotypes, including decreased capsule formation, hypomelanization, defective sporulation, and elevated sensitivity to several external stressors (such as high temperature, oxidative and nitrosative stresses, high salts, and antifungal agents). Ubp5 is likely the major deubiquitinating enzyme for stress responses in C. neoformans, which further delineates the evolutionary divergence of Cryptococcus from the model yeast S. cerevisiae, and provides an important paradigm for understanding the potential role of deubiquitination in virulence by other pathogenic fungi. Other putative deubiquitinase mutants (doa4Δ and ubp13Δ) share some phenotypes with the ubp5Δ mutant, illustrating functional overlap among deubiquitinating enzymes in C. neoformans. Therefore, deubiquitinating enzymes (especially Ubp5) are essential for the virulence composite of C. neoformans and provide an additional yeast survival and propagation advantage in the host.
Optimal common-centroid-based unit capacitor placements for yield enhancement of switched-capacitor circuits

Yield is defined as the probability that the circuit under consideration meets with the design specification within the tolerance. Placement with higher correlation coefficients has fewer mismatches and lower variation of capacitor ratio, thus achieving higher yield performance. This study presents a new optimization criterion that quickly determines if the placement is optimal. The optimization criterion leads to the development of the concepts of C-entries and partitioned subarrays which can significantly reduce the searching space for finding the optimal/near-optimal placements on a sufficiently large array size.
Cognitive Impairments in Early Parkinson's Disease Are Accompanied by Reductions in Activity in Frontostriatal Neural Circuitry

Studies in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suggest that the characteristic motor symptoms of the disorder are frequently accompanied by impairments in cognition that are most profound in tasks of executive function. Neuropsychological deficits are not an inevitable consequence of the disease, yet the reasons underlying cognitive heterogeneity in PD are not well understood. To determine the underlying neural correlate of these cognitive deficits, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare groups of cognitively impaired and unimpaired patients, matched on all other clinical measures. fMRI revealed significant signal intensity reductions during a working-memory paradigm in specific striatal and frontal lobe sites in patients with cognitive impairment compared with those patients who were not cognitively unimpaired. These results demonstrate that cognitive deficits in PD are accompanied by neural changes that are related to, but distinct from, those changes that underlie motoric deficits in these patients. Furthermore, they suggest that fMRI may provide a valuable tool for identifying patients who may benefit from targeted therapeutic strategies.
Lower cognitive performance and white matter changes in testicular cancer survivors 10 years after chemotherapy

Chemotherapy (CT) is associated with adverse effects on cognition. Only few studies have investigated cognition in testicular cancer (TC) patients and studies on very late effects of CT on cognition are absent. Further, brain changes in relation to treatment have not been investigated in TC. The objective of the present study is to compare psychosocial functioning, cognitive performance and brain (micro)structure following surgery and CT for TC, against surgery (S)‐only.
F-Box Protein Specificity for G1 Cyclins Is Dictated by Subcellular Localization

Levels of G1 cyclins fluctuate in response to environmental cues and couple mitotic signaling to cell cycle entry. The G1 cyclin Cln3 is a key regulator of cell size and cell cycle entry in budding yeast. Cln3 degradation is essential for proper cell cycle control; however, the mechanisms that control Cln3 degradation are largely unknown. Here we show that two SCF ubiquitin ligases, SCFCdc4 and SCFGrr1, redundantly target Cln3 for degradation. While the F-box proteins (FBPs) Cdc4 and Grr1 were previously thought to target non-overlapping sets of substrates, we find that Cdc4 and Grr1 each bind to all 3 G1 cyclins in cell extracts, yet only Cln3 is redundantly targeted in vivo, due in part to its nuclear localization. The related cyclin Cln2 is cytoplasmic and exclusively targeted by Grr1. However, Cdc4 can interact with Cdk-phosphorylated Cln2 and target it for degradation when cytoplasmic Cdc4 localization is forced in vivo. These findings suggest that Cdc4 and Grr1 may share additional redundant targets and, consistent with this possibility, grr1Δ cdc4-1 cells demonstrate a CLN3-independent synergistic growth defect. Our findings demonstrate that structurally distinct FBPs are capable of interacting with some of the same substrates; however, in vivo specificity is achieved in part by subcellular localization. Additionally, the FBPs Cdc4 and Grr1 are partially redundant for proliferation and viability, likely sharing additional redundant substrates whose degradation is important for cell cycle progression.
Employee Resilience and OCB: Mediating Effects of Organizational Commitment

Executive Summary With increased popularity of positive psychology, there is a greater emphasis on exploring positive human resource strengths to address the workplace challenges and augment organizational performance. Previous research suggests that resilience positively relates to desired employee attitudes, behaviours, and performance such as organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). However, it would be intriguing to understand the underlying mechanism of resilience-OCB relationship. Towards this, the study examines the mediating role of organizational commitment. In the light of identified research gaps, the study explores the mechanism of the relationship between resilience and OCB in the context of Indian organizations. The study sample comprised employees (N = 345) working in the manufacturing industries of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in India. Data were collected with the help of self-administered questionnaires through systematic random sampling. A model was developed and tested in which the effects of resilience on OCB were hypothesized to be mediated by organizational commitment. The hypotheses testing was done using hierarchical multiple regression and for testing the mediating effects, bootstrapping in SPSS was used. The results provide empirical evidence for the positive relationship between resilience and OCB. Also, the results emphasize that resilience influence organizational commitment as well. As hypothesized, results have also supported the mediating effect of organizational commitment in the relationship between resilience and OCB, explaining the underlying mechanism of resilience-OCB relationship. The mediation is partial which means that resilience influences OCB directly as well as indirectly through organizational commitment. The study offers significant advancements for both resilience and OCB research. The results also offer direction to organizations which desire to stimulate and maintain employee outcomes in their organizations for competitive advantage. Employee outcomes in organizations can be improved by developing resilience among its employees. Implications of promoting resilience at workplace are discussed.
Analytical Characterization of ITLinQ: Channel Allocation for Device-to-Device Communication Networks

Device-to-device (D2D) communication allows serving local wireless traffic bypassing the system's infrastructure. One way to control the interference in D2D networks is to carefully channelize transmissions. This paper presents an analytical characterization of ITLinQ, one of the principal D2D channelization schemes proposed to date. Recognizing that it captures well the spatial characteristics of D2D networks, a stochastic geometry setting is utilized for this analysis. The derived expressions enable gleaning insights on how ITLinQ avoids situations of excessive interference, and they facilitate optimizing the controllable parameters of ITLinQ so as to maximize the system spectral efficiency (bits/s/Hz per unit area). With the parameters thus optimized, the ultimate performance of ITLinQ can be evaluated with respect to other D2D channel allocation schemes. In particular, performance evaluation comparisons with the FlashLinQ scheme are provided, and the gains with respect to an unchannelized network are quantified.
Breaking the fidelity barrier: an examination of our current characterization of prototypes and an example of a mixed-fidelity success

This paper presents a summary of the space of commonly-used HCI prototyping methods (low-fidelity to high-fidelity) and asserts that with a better understanding of this space, HCI practitioners will be better equipped to direct scarce prototyping resources toward an effort likely to yield specific results. It presents a set of five dimensions along which prototypes can be planned and characterized. The paper then describes an analysis of this space performed by members of the NASA Ames Human-Computer Interaction Group when considering prototyping approaches for a new set of tools for Mars mission planning and scheduling tools. A description is presented of a prototype that demonstrates design solutions that would have been particularly difficult to test given conventional low- or mid- fidelity prototyping methods. The prototype created was "mixed-fidelity," that is, high-fidelity on some dimensions and low-fidelity on others. The prototype is compared to a preexisting tool being redesigned and to a tool that has been developed using the prototype. Experimental data are presented that show the prototype to be a good predictor of eventual user performance with the final application. Given the relative cost of developing prototypes, it is critical to better characterize the space of fidelity in order to more precisely allocate design and development resources.
Evaluating Population Origins and Interpretations of Identity: a Case Study of the Lemba of South Africa

This study compares genetics and linguistics of the Lemba, a population living primarily in South Africa, as a means to identify any possible correlation between these two sources, to better understand how identity is impacted by ancestry testing, and to examine the Lemba’s claim to Jewish ancestry with this evidence. The methods compare allele frequency data from several populations that were expected, based on Spurdle and Jenkins (1996), Casanova et al (1985), Ritte et al. (1993), Santachiara Benerecetti et al (1993), and Soodyall (2013), to be geographically proximate to and thereby more closely related the Lemban people. Results were clustered by language community to detect possible correlations. The different frequencies considered yielded dissimilar relationships between genetic and linguistic clusters, thus supporting the independence of mechanisms of linguistic and genetic change. These results contribute to the discussion of how identity can be validated or undermined by demonstrating three sources, geographic, linguistic, and genetic, by which to derive an identity and how these can produce contradictory answers. INDEX WORDS: Population genetics, Linguistics, Identity, Lemba, Ancestry, Genetic testing EVALUATING POPULATION ORIGINS AND INTEPRETATIONS OF IDENTITY: A CASE STUDY OF THE LEMBA OF SOUTH AFRICA
Transformational leadership and autonomy support management behaviors: The role of specificity in predicting employees’ psychological health

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between transformational leadership (TL), autonomy support management behaviors and employees’ psychological health. Design/methodology/approach A total of 512 Canadian workers assessed their immediate supervisor’s level of TL and autonomy support management behaviors. Participants also assessed their own psychological health through measures of psychological well-being and burnout at work. Findings Results from structural equation modeling indicate that TL is related to employee psychological well-being and burnout. This effect is fully mediated by more specific autonomy support and psychological control management behaviors. These results suggest that autonomy support and psychological control management behaviors may have a more proximal effect on employees’ psychological health than TL does. Also, managers’ leadership and behaviors appear to better predict employees’ psychological well-being at work than employee burnout. Practical implications Managers with a TL style employ more autonomy support and fewer psychological control behaviors, which makes employees happier and less burned out. Based on these results, leadership training programs would gain to focus on the development of more specific management behaviors among leaders, such as autonomy support, to enhance employees’ psychological health, especially their well-being. Originality/value This research expands understanding of the relationship between TL and the psychological health of employees by shedding light on the mediating role of autonomy support management behaviors in this relationship.
A Fast Mechanical Switch for Medium-Voltage Hybrid DC and AC Circuit Breakers

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a Thomson coil-based fast mechanical switch for hybrid ac and dc circuit breakers rated at 30-kV voltage and 630-A current. The compact design with optimized circuit parameters and geometric dimensions of components targets 2-mm travel within 1 ms when driven by a 2-mF capacitor bank precharged to 500 V. The use and design of a disc spring as the damping and holding mechanism is presented. Structural design of a complete switch assembly rather than just the actuator is given. Experimental results show that the switch can travel 1.3 mm in the first 1 ms and 3.1 mm in the first 2 ms when driven by a 360-V 2-mF capacitor bank. Such fast mechanical switches facilitate hybrid circuit breaker interruptions within 2 or 3 ms for ultra-fast and highly efficient protections in 5-35 kV medium-voltage dc as well as ac systems.
The Behavioral Immune System Shapes Political Intuitions: Why and How Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Underlie Opposition to Immigration

We present, test, and extend a theoretical framework that connects disgust, a powerful basic human emotion, to political attitudes through psychological mechanisms designed to protect humans from disease. These mechanisms work outside of conscious awareness, and in modern environments, they can motivate individuals to avoid intergroup contact by opposing immigration. We report a meta-analysis of previous tests in the psychological sciences and conduct, for the first time, a series of tests in nationally representative samples collected in the United States and Denmark that integrate the role of disgust and the behavioral immune system into established models of emotional processing and political attitude formation. In doing so, we offer an explanation for why peaceful integration and interaction between ethnic majority and minorities is so hard to achieve.
The Role of Television in Household Debt: Evidence from the 1950's

Abstract We examine whether advertising increases household debt by studying the initial expansion of television in the 1950's. Exploiting the idiosyncratic spread of television across markets, we use micro data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to test whether households with early access to television saw steeper debt increases than households with delayed access. Results indicate that exposure to television advertising increases the tendency to borrow for household goods and the tendency to carry debt. Television access is associated with higher debt levels for durable goods, but not with the total amount of non-mortgage debt. We provide suggestive evidence that increased labor supply may drive our results. The role of media in household debt may be greater than suggested by existing research.
A recursive formulation of Cholesky factorization of a matrix in packed storage

A new compact way to store a symmetric or triangular matrix called RPF for Recursive Packed Format is fully described. Novel ways to transform RPF to and from standard packed format are included. A new algorithm, called RPC for Recursive Packed Cholesky, that operates on the RPG format is presented. ALgorithm RPC is basd on level-3 BLAS and requires variants of algorithms TRSM and SYRK that work on RPF. We call these RP_TRSM and RP_SYRK and find that they do most of their work by calling GEMM. It follows that most of the execution time of RPC lies in GEMM. The advantage of this storage scheme compared to traditional packed and full storage is demonstrated. First, the RPC storage format uses the minimal amount of storage for the symmetric or triangular matrix. Second, RPC gives a level-3 implementation of Cholesky factorization whereas standard packed implementations are only level 2. Hence, the performance of our RPC implementation is decidedly superior. Third, unlike fixed block size algorithms, RPC, requires no block size tuning parameter. We present performance measurements on several current architectures that demonstrate improvements over the traditional packed routines. Also MSP parallel computations on the IBM SMP computer are made. The graphs that are attached in Section 7 show that the RPC algorithms are superior by a factor between 1.6 and 7.4 for order around 1000, and between 1.9 and 10.3 for order around 3000 over the traditional packed algorithms. For some architectures, the RPC performance results are almost the same or even better than the traditional full-storage algorithms results.
Polymorphism within the herpes simplex virus (HSV) ribonucleotide reductase large subunit (ICP6) confers type specificity for recognition by HSV type 1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

A panel of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)-specific, CD8+, major histocompatibility complex class I (H-2Kb)-restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) clones was derived from HSV-1-immunized C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice in order to identify the HSV-1 CTL recognition epitope(s) which confers type specificity. HSV-1 x HSV-2 intertypic recombinants were used to narrow the region encoding potential CTL recognition epitopes to within 0.51 to 0.58 map units of the HSV-1 genome. Using an inhibitor of viral DNA synthesis and an ICP6 deletion mutant, the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (ICP6, RR1) was identified as a target protein for these type-specific CTL. Potential CTL recognition epitopes within RR1 were located on the basis of the peptide motif predicted to bind to the MHC class I H-2Kb molecule. A peptide corresponding to residues 822 to 829 of RR1 was shown to confer susceptibility on H-2Kb-expressing target cells to lysis by the type 1-specific CTL. On the basis of a comparison of the HSV-1 RR1 epitope (residues 822 to 829) with the homologous sequence of HSV-2 RR1 (residues 828 to 836) and by the use of amino acid substitutions within synthetic peptides, we identified HSV-1 residue 828 as being largely responsible for the type specificity exhibited by HSV-1-specific CTL. This HSV-1 RR1 epitope, when expressed in recombinant simian virus 40 large T antigen in primary C57BL/6 cells, was recognized by the HSV-1 RR1-specific CTL clones. These results indicate that an early HSV protein with enzymatic activity provides a target for HSV-specific CTL and that type specificity is dictated largely by a single amino acid.
The Determinants of Equity Risk and Their Forecasting Implications: A Quantile Regression Perspective

Several market and macro-level variables influence the evolution of equity risk in addition to the well-known volatility persistence. However, the impact of those covariates might change depending on the risk level, being different between low and high volatility states. By combining equity risk estimates, obtained from the Realized Range Volatility, corrected for microstructure noise and jumps, and quantile regression methods, we evaluate the forecasting implications of the equity risk determinants in different volatility states and, without distributional assumptions on the realized range innovations, we recover both the points and the conditional distribution forecasts. In addition, we analyse how the the relationships among the involved variables evolve over time, through a rolling window procedure. The results show evidence of the selected variables’ relevant impacts and, particularly during periods of market stress, highlight heterogeneous effects across quantiles.
The effects of managerial and employee attributions for corporate social responsibility initiatives

Summary Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) can affect employees, we know little about how it affects them. Employees' interpretation of CSR is important because of the paradoxical nature of CSR. When firms operate in ways that seem counter to their nature (i.e., pursuit of social good rather than profit), the causal attributions of affected employees are crucial to understanding their work-related behavior, as is the role of contextual factors such as leadership processes in shaping these attributions. Drawing from attribution and social learning theories, we develop a multilevel social influence theory of how CSR affects employees. We integrate managers as second observers in the baseline actor (i.e., firm)—observer (i.e., employee) dyad, whereas most attribution theory research has focused on single actor–observer dyads. Multisource field data collected from 427 employees and 45 managers were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Managers' genuine (self-serving) CSR attributions are positively related to employees' genuine (self-serving) CSR attributions; and the strength of the relationship between managers' and employees' genuine CSR attributions depends on managers' organizational tenure. Employees' genuine CSR attributions also are positively related to employee advocacy, whereas—interestingly—employees' self-serving CSR attributions do not appear to harm employee advocacy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.