Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Translocation of RNA-coated gold particles through the nuclear pores of oocytes

In the present study, various sized gold particles coated with tRNA, 5S RNA, or poly(A) were used to localize and characterize the pathways for RNA translocation to the cytoplasm. RNA-coated gold particles were microinjected into the nucleus of Xenopus oocytes. The cells were fixed after 15, 60 min, or 6 h, and the particle distribution was later observed by electron microscopy. Similar results were obtained with all classes of RNA used. After nuclear injection, particles ranging from 20- 230 A in diameter were observed within central channels of the nuclear pores and in the cytoplasm immediately adjacent to the pores. Particles of this size would not be expected to diffuse through the pores, suggesting that some form of mediated transport occurred. In addition, it was found that the translocation process is saturable. At least 97% of the pores analyzed appeared to be involved in the translocation process. Gold coated with nonphysiological polynucleotides (poly[I] or poly[dA]) were also translocated. When nuclei were injected with either BSA-, ovalbumin-, polyglutamic acid-, or PVP-coated gold, the particles were essentially excluded from the pores. These results indicate that the accumulation of RNA-gold within the pores and adjacent cytoplasm was not due to non-specific effects. We conclude that the translocation sites for gold particles coated with different classes of RNA are located in the centers of the nuclear pores and that particles at least 230 A in diameter can cross the envelope. Tracer particles injected into the cytoplasm were observed within the nuclear pores in areas near the site of injection. However, only a small percentage of the particles actually entered the nucleus. It was also determined, by performing double injection experiments, that individual pores are bifunctional, that is, capable of transporting both proteins and RNA.
Prediction of Selected Personality Characteristics of Businessmen in the Context of their Potential to Work with Customer

The current paper aimed to analyze the predictive power of conscientiousness and agreeableness which are important personality characteristics of businessmen and related to potential to work with customers. The sample consisted of 122 respondents, 42 women and 80 men (average age was 28.71 and standard deviation 2.98) working in business area with customers. The data were collected through NEO-Five Factor Inventory which measured the level of agreeableness and conscientiousness developed by McCrae and Costa (1987) in Slovak translated by Hřebičková and Urbánek (2001) and SKASUK- Scale of potential to work with customer developed by Sonnenberg in Slovak translated by Kováč (2006). Based on the confirmed aspects it was concluded that motivation to help had significant predictive power in predicting conscientiousness. Dominance and social appreciation did not have significant predictive power in predicting conscientiousness. We found that characteristics which are potential to work with customer did not have significant predictive power in predicting agreeableness. Social appreciation contributed to prediction of agreeableness at significant level.
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

An increase in per capita income in a country is normally accompanied by a rise in the share of industrial output. The accepted explanation for this relationship is the change in the composition of demand, of which the decline in the share of food (Engel's Law) is the most notable feature. However, this over-all relationship does not necessarily apply to every individual country. XVithin limits, the changing composition of domestic demand can be offset through foreign trade. A country having a continuing comparative advantage in primary production may therefore reach a high level of income without an increase in the share of industry in total output. Because of the diversity of natural resources, we should not expect to find uniform patterns of growth in all countries. ' Evidence from several sources suggests a closer and more pronounced relationship between levels of income and industrial output than would be predicted from the change in demand alone. Kuznets' comparison of some 50 countries [13] shows a marked increase of manufacturing with rising per capita income, as did the earlier analyses of Bean
Breakdown-free GMRES for Singular Systems

GMRES is a popular iterative method for the solution of large linear systems of equations with a square nonsingular matrix. When the matrix is singular, GMRES may break down before an acceptable approximate solution has been determined. This paper discusses properties of GMRES solutions at breakdown and presents a modification of GMRES to overcome the breakdown.
Lanthanum carbonate: safety data after 10 years

Despite 10 years of post‐marketing safety monitoring of the phosphate binder lanthanum carbonate, concerns about aluminium‐like accumulation and toxicity persist. Here, we present a concise overview of the safety profile of lanthanum carbonate and interim results from a 5‐year observational database study (SPD405‐404; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00567723). The pharmacokinetic paradigms of lanthanum and aluminium are different in that lanthanum is minimally absorbed and eliminated via the hepatobiliary pathway, whereas aluminium shows appreciable absorption and is eliminated by the kidneys. Randomised prospective studies of paired bone biopsies revealed no evidence of accumulation or toxicity in patients treated with lanthanum carbonate. Patients treated with lanthanum carbonate for up to 6 years showed no clinically relevant changes in liver enzyme or bilirubin levels. Lanthanum does not cross the intact blood–brain barrier. The most common adverse effects are mild/moderate nausea, diarrhoea and flatulence. An interim Kaplan–Meier analysis of SPD405‐404 data from the United States Renal Data System revealed that the median 5‐year survival was 51.6 months (95% CI: 49.1, 54.2) in patients who received lanthanum carbonate (test group), 48.9 months (95% CI: 47.3, 50.5) in patients treated with other phosphate binders (concomitant therapy control group) and 40.3 months (95% CI: 38.9, 41.5) in patients before the availability of lanthanum carbonate (historical control group). Bone fracture rates were 5.9%, 6.7% and 6.4%, respectively. After more than 850 000 person‐years of worldwide patient exposure, there is no evidence that lanthanum carbonate is associated with adverse safety outcomes in patients with end‐stage renal disease.
Experimental Evolution and Population Genetics of RNA Viruses

Viral studies have contributed substantially to the field of experimental evolution during the last two decades. The rapid evolution of RNA viruses makes them especially suitable for investigating real-time evolution, while their small genomes facilitate the analysis of the genetic basis of evolutionary change. We review recent advances in RNA virus experimental evolution, focusing on genetic properties that differentiate them from DNA-based organisms, such as their high mutation rates, small genome sizes, low genetic robustness, and the predominance of antagonistic epistasis. We argue that these properties can explain many aspects of RNA virus evolution, including rapid evolution, marked fitness tradeoffs, frequent sequence convergences, strong deleterious effects of genetic drift, or high sensitivity to mutation accumulation.
Classification Of E-Customer Sessions Based On Support Vector Machine

A key feature of high-traffic e-commerce sites is the ability to offer a predictive and personalized service to Web users. Visitors to online stores are potential buyers but in reality very few visits finally result in a product purchase. Thus, it would be especially valuable for online retailers to predict buyers against browsers based on some session features (e.g. session duration, the number of downloaded pages, the kind of realized Web interactions) and some HTTP-level information (the number of HTTP requests, the volume of data transfer in session). In this paper, we recast online purchase predictions as a classification problem. Every user session in a web store is represented as a 23-element vector in the session feature space. Based on historical data from an online bookstore an SVM classification model is proposed, dividing user sessions into two classes: browsing sessions and buying sessions. The best SVM classifier proved to be very effective, with a predictive accuracy of over 99% and the probability of predicting a buying session of almost 95%.
Motivation of software engineers: A qualitative case study of a research and development organisation

Understanding motivation of software engineers has important implications for industrial practice. This complex construct seems to be affected by diverse environmental conditions and can affect multiple dimensions of work effectiveness. In this article, we present a grounded theory that describes the motivation of software engineers working in a not-for-profit private research and development organisation. We carried out a holistic case study for seven months, using structured interviews, diary studies, and documental analysis for data collection, and grounded theory techniques for data analysis and synthesis. The results point to task variety and technical challenges as the main drivers of motivation, and inequity and high workload (caused by poor estimations in the software process) as the main obstacles to motivation in the organisation.
A follow-up study of the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of ill health

The duration and frequency of mobile phone calls, and their relationship with various health effects, have been investigated in our previous cross-sectional study. This 2-year period follow-up study aimed to assess the changes in these variables of same subjects. The study population comprised 532 non-patient adult subjects sampled from the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study. The subjects underwent a medical examination at a hospital in 2012/2013 and revisited the same hospital in 2014/2015 to have the same examination for the characteristics of mobile phone use performed. In addition, to evaluate the effects on health, the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6), Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Korean-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, Perceived Stress Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and 12-item Short Form Health Survey were analyzed. For all these tests, the higher the score, the greater the effect on health. Variances between scores in all the indices in the baseline and follow-up surveys were calculated, and correlations of each index were analyzed. The average duration per call and HIT-6 score of the subjects decreased significantly compared with those recorded two years ago. The results showed a slight but significant correlation between call duration changes and HIT-6 score changes for female subjects, but not for males. HIT-6 scores in the follow-up survey significantly decreased compared to those in the baseline survey, but long-time call users (subjects whose call duration was ≥5 minutes in both the baseline and follow-up surveys) had no statistically significant reduction in HIT-6 scores. This study suggests that increased call duration is a greater risk factor for increases in headache than any other type of adverse health effect, and that this effect can be chronic.
Optimal vortex formation in a self-propelled vehicle

Abstract Previous studies have shown that the formation of coherent vortex rings in the near-wake of a self-propelled vehicle can increase propulsive efficiency compared with a steady jet wake. The present study utilizes a self-propelled vehicle to explore the dependence of propulsive efficiency on the vortex ring characteristics. The maximum propulsive efficiency was observed to occur when vortex rings were formed of the largest physical size, just before the leading vortex ring would pinch off from its trailing jet. These experiments demonstrate the importance of vortex ring pinch off in self-propelled vehicles, where coflow modifies the vortex dynamics.
Mixing and hitting times for finite Markov chains

Let $0<\alpha<1/2$. We show that that the mixing time of a continuous-time Markov chain on a finite state space is about as large as the largest expected hitting time of a subset of the state space with stationary measure $\geq \alpha$. Suitably modified results hold in discrete time and/or without the reversibility assumption. The key technical tool in the proof is the construction of random set $A$ such that the hitting time of $A$ is a light-tailed stationary time for the chain. We note that essentially the same results were obtained independently by Peres and Sousi.
Chitosan Effects on Plant Systems

Chitosan (CHT) is a natural, safe, and cheap product of chitin deacetylation, widely used by several industries because of its interesting features. The availability of industrial quantities of CHT in the late 1980s enabled it to be tested in agriculture. CHT has been proven to stimulate plant growth, to protect the safety of edible products, and to induce abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in various horticultural commodities. The stimulating effect of different enzyme activities to detoxify reactive oxygen species suggests the involvement of hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide in CHT signaling. CHT could also interact with chromatin and directly affect gene expression. Recent innovative uses of CHT include synthesis of CHT nanoparticles as a valuable delivery system for fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and micronutrients for crop growth promotion by a balanced and sustained nutrition. In addition, CHT nanoparticles can safely deliver genetic material for plant transformation. This review presents an overview on the status of the use of CHT in plant systems. Attention was given to the research that suggested the use of CHT for sustainable crop productivity.
Eigenfaces vs. fisherfaces vs. ICA for face recognition; a comparative study

Face recognition issue gained more interest recently due to its various applications and the demand of high security. Some researches with contradicting results were published concerning this issue. This paper compared three popular face recognition projection methods: (eigenfaces), (fisherfaces), and ICA. We also applied some data transformations: (discrete wavelet and cosine transforms) preceding methods to see their effect. Most researches based their results on the FERET database. AR and AT & T databases were used here to see if the same results apply. We also compared the results of two sets of experiments with the second set using half the training images used in the first to observe if the results may change. Overall conclusion is it canpsilat be stated that specific algorithm outperforms others, though ICA and eigenfaces respectively showed better results than fisherfaces for both experiments sets and both databases. Preceding algorithms with transformations yield better results for some algorithms.
The Environments of a Complete Moderate-Redshift Sample of FIRST Bent-Double Radio Sources

We present an optical spectroscopic and imaging study of the environments of a complete sample of moderate-redshift bent-double radio sources. More than half of the 40 radio galaxies in the sample are associated with clusters of Abell richness class 0 or greater at z < 0.4. Most of the remaining objects are associated with groups, although a few appear to be hosted by nearly isolated elliptical galaxies. For the bent doubles appearing in poor environments, either dense gas must be associated with the systems to provide the ram pressure to bend the lobes or alternative bending mechanisms must be invoked to explain the radio morphologies. Correlation with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey bright and faint source catalogs reveals that the majority of the z < 0.2 objects in our sample that we classify optically as clusters are also X-ray sources.
Adiabatic logic: Energy efficient technique for VLSI applications

This paper proposes an energy efficient technique with two-phase clocked adiabatic logic. A simulative investigation on the proposed circuit has been carried out in SPICE at 0. 18μm technology node. Further NAND and NOR gates have been implemented by this technique and hence compared with the standard CMOS, Positive Feedback Adiabatic Logic (PFAL) and Two-Phase Adiabatic Static Clocked Logic (2PASCL) logic. Comparison has shown a significant power saving to the extent of 70% in case of proposed technique as compared to CMOS logic within 10 to 150MHz transition frequency range. Simulation results obtained from the technique cited just before have strongly ratified its validation & use in low power digital devices operated at low frequency.
RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY AND THERMAL SPECTRUM OF ACCRETION ONTO SCHWARZSCHILD BLACK HOLES

Recent general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of accretion onto black holes (BHs) have shown that, contrary to the basic assumptions of the Novikov–Thorne (NT) model, there can be substantial magnetic stress throughout the plunging region. Additional dissipation and radiation can therefore be expected. We use data from a particularly well-resolved simulation of accretion onto a non-spinning BH to compute both the radiative efficiency of such a flow and its spectrum if all emitted light is radiated with a thermal spectrum whose temperature matches the local effective temperature. This disk is geometrically thin enough (H/r ≃ 0.06) that little heat is retained in the flow. In terms of light reaching infinity (i.e., after allowance for all relativistic effects and for photon capture by the BH), we find that the radiative efficiency is at least ≃ 6%–10% greater than predicted by the NT model (complete radiation of all heat might yield another ≃ 6%). We also find that the spectrum more closely resembles the NT prediction for a/M ≃ 0.2–0.3 than for the correct value, a/M = 0. As a result, if the spin of a non-spinning BH is inferred by model fitting to an NT model with known BH mass, distance, and inclination, the inferred a/M is too large by ≃ 0.2–0.3.
Getting Real: A Different Perspective on the Relationship Between School Resources and Student Outcomes

Most research on the association between school resources and student outcomes has concentrated on finances as measured in dollars. This study takes a fresh look at the issue by focusing on the allocation of real resources, defined as the personnel and materiel used to increase student learning, which are more relevant measures of a school's instructional conditions. Our findings indicate that prediction models that combine real resource and environmental variables forecast as much as two thirds of the variation in student outcome data, as measured by achievement gain scores and college aspiration rates. The ability to predict the college aspirations of high school students after including real resources improves by 14%, suggesting practical and statistical significance. Although socioeconomic status remains the greatest predictor of college aspirations, resource quality as measured by the percentage of faculty with master's and doctoral degrees is not far behind. These findings should lead to a reevaluation of school district human resource practices with regard to recruiting and hiring, professional development, personnel evaluation, and employee compensation, with important implications for student data collection and school funding litigation. We expect the findings to inform school-level decision making and accountability for principals, superintendents, local boards of education, and state policymakers.
Genetic transfer of fusion proteins effectively inhibits VCAM-1-mediated cell adhesion and transmigration via inhibition of cytoskeletal anchorage

The adhesion of leukocytes to endothelium plays a central role in the development of atherosclerosis and thus represents an attractive therapeutic target for anti‐atherosclerotic therapies. Vascular cell adhesion molecule‐1 (VCAM‐1) mediates both the initial tethering and the firm adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells. Our work evaluates the feasibility of using the cytoskeletal anchorage of VCAM‐1 as a target for gene therapy. As a proof of concept, integrin αIIbβ3‐mediated cell adhesion with clearly defined cytoskeletal anchorage was tested. We constructed fusion proteins containing the intracellular domain of β3 placed at various distances to the cell membrane. Using cell adhesion assays and immunofluorescence, we established fusion constructs with competitive and dominant negative inhibition of cell adhesion. With the goal being the transfer of the dominant negative mechanism towards VCAM‐1 inhibition, we constructed a fusion molecule containing the cytoplasmic domain of VCAM‐1. Indeed, VCAM‐1 mediated leukocyte adhesion can be inhibited via transfection of DNA encoding the designed VCAM‐1 fusion protein. This is demonstrated in adhesion assays under static and flow conditions using CHO cells expressing recombinant VCAM‐1 as well as activated endothelial cells. Thus, we are able to describe a novel approach for dominant negative inhibition of leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells. This approach warrants further development as a novel gene therapeutic strategy that aims for a locally restricted effect at atherosclerotic areas of the vasculature.
The interaction of repetition and difficulty for working memory in melodic dictation tasks

This research examines the effect of repetition on melodic dictation tasks in an undergraduate ear-training class. A pilot group of freshman music majors (n = 17) were asked to notate four melodies, of which two were slightly more difficult since they contained more melodic leaps. Participants heard two melodies repeated three times and two other melodies six times. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggests that the number of repetitions had a significant effect on participants’ dictation accuracy, both for scores on pitch and on rhythm. In addition, dictation accuracy was significantly lower when the melodies contained more leaps (controlling for other factors). Overall, we found a statistical interaction between the number of repetitions and the number of leaps in the melody, both of which factors affect the working memory load in these dictation tasks. Given the similarity of the notated melodies, these findings suggest that ear-training pedagogues must carefully select melodic dictations appropriate for student ability and control the number of melodic leaps. Furthermore, we found evidence that the variance in working memory for music among this population is wider than Karpinski (2000) hypothesizes. These findings provide pedagogues with melodic characteristics well-suited for the average incoming freshman music major. Finally, this first empirical evidence of the dictation ability of incoming undergraduate music majors invites a long-term study on the extent to which working memory and/or chunking ability may increase during the multi-semester ear-training curriculum.
Modelling the millimetre-infrared flaring behaviour of the quasar 1253-055 (3C279)

The infrared through millimetre light curve of 3C279 is investigated for the period of 1986 until mid-1994, during which time several flares were observed. A quiescent spectrum (identified with emission from an underlying jet) is presented. Both the near-IR and 375–150 GHz regimes are shown to be well described by power laws, with no evidence for any thermal contribution in the IR. Successful isolation of the flaring component by subtraction of a base level is found to be difficult. Dividing each individual flare into two regimes corresponding to before and after maximum flux, we find strong linear correlations between log 90 GHz flux and 22–90 GHz spectral slope. Furthermore, the gradient of the linear correlation steepens as the flare decays after maximum. This trend is observed for several successive flares, and can be successfully explained in terms of evolution of the flare according to the the shocked-jet model of Marscher & Gear (1985).