Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
X-Ray Crystallographic Structure of the Norwalk Virus Protease at 1.5-Å Resolution

ABSTRACT Norwalk virus (NV), a member of the Caliciviridae family, is the major cause of acute, epidemic, viral gastroenteritis. The NV genome is a positive sense, single-stranded RNA that encodes three open reading frames (ORFs). The first ORF produces a polyprotein that is processed by the viral cysteine protease into six nonstructural proteins. We have determined the structure of the NV protease to 1.5 and 2.2 Å from crystals grown in the absence or presence, respectively, of the protease inhibitor AEBSF [4-(2-aminoethyl)-benzenesulfonyl fluoride]. The protease, which crystallizes as a stable dimer, exhibits a two-domain structure similar to those of other viral cysteine proteases with a catalytic triad composed of His 30, Glu 54, and Cys 139. The native structure of the protease reveals strong hydrogen bond interactions between His 30 and Glu 54, in the favorable syn configuration, indicating a role of Glu 54 during proteolysis. Mutation of this residue to Ala abolished the protease activity, in a fluorogenic peptide substrate assay, further substantiating the role of Glu 54 during proteolysis. These observations contrast with the suggestion, from a previous study of another norovirus protease, that this residue may not have a prominent role in proteolysis (K. Nakamura, Y. Someya, T. Kumasaka, G. Ueno, M. Yamamoto, T. Sato, N. Takeda, T. Miyamura, and N. Tanaka, J. Virol. 79:13685-13693, 2005). In the structure from crystals grown in the presence of AEBSF, Glu 54 undergoes a conformational change leading to disruption of the hydrogen bond interactions with His 30. Since AEBSF was not apparent in the electron density map, it is possible that these conformational changes are due to subtle changes in pH caused by its addition during crystallization.
Community-based adaptation for improved rural livelihoods: a case in eastern Uganda

Climate change adaptation is a priority and is fundamentally about sound and resilient development tailored to local conditions and needs. Several researchers have underscored the importance of community-based adaptation in achieving this. This article examines community-based approaches in order to build an understanding of community vulnerability to current and future climate risks in eastern Uganda. Primary data were collected at the community and household level applying participatory vulnerability and capacity assessment, in-depth household, and key informant interviews. Major climate risks in eastern Uganda that exacerbate community and household vulnerability are heavy and erratic rainfall leading to landslides in hilly areas and floods in low-lying areas, and droughts within the year and mid-season, affecting crop and livestock yields. Communities and households have innovative coping mechanisms based on past experiences, local knowledge and expertise albeit in an ad hoc manner. Household labour endowment, farm size, livestock ownership, access to weather information and credit positively and significantly affect the adoption of adaptation technologies by households. At community level, inherent knowledge and skills, and social and financial capital, play a critical role in shaping adaptation to climate risks. This study therefore strongly suggests that analyses of climate change impacts and design of adaptation projects should take into account community perspectives, knowledge and resources. Government and other stakeholders should identify and evaluate potential, location-specific adaptation measures, and incorporate them into the country's development policy and management practices particularly national development plan.
A study of the ethical views of final year South African accounting students, using vignettes as examples

The aim of this paper is to gauge the ethical views of male and female final year Accounting students in South Africa and to compare the results with similar studies performed in Australia and Ireland. The study also discusses the desirability of including an ethics course in the Accounting curriculum as a strategy to improve the ethical standing of the accounting profession. The most important self‐reported factor that influenced students’ ethical behaviour was the fear of getting caught. It was recommended that professional accountancy bodies should be more transparent in respect of their disciplinary procedures in order to discourage unethical behaviour. Ethics training initiatives should also address whistleblowing, and whistleblowing should be encouraged. Furthermore, universities should integrate ethics more fully into all courses in the Accounting curriculum of prospective professional accountants.
A `liquid-solid' phase transition in a simple model for swarming

We consider a non-local shape optimization problem, which is motivated by a simple model for swarming and other self-assembly/aggregation models, and prove the existence of different phases. A technical key ingredient, which we establish, is that a strictly subharmonic function cannot be constant on a set of positive measure.
Royalty Stacking in High Tech Industries: Separating Myth from Reality

A few recent contributions have claimed that in high-tech industries—where innovation is often cumulative and products include many components which are protected by patents in the hands of many different patent holders—the cost of obtaining all necessary licenses is too high. Some have even requested sweeping policy reforms to deal with the so-called royalty stacking problem. In this Essay we find that the empirical evidence—including new evidence for the 3G telecom industry—does not corroborate the gloomy predictions of the proponents of the royalty stacking hypothesis. A careful look at the theoretical underpinnings of this hypothesis explains the lack of empirical support. First, three necessary conditions must be satisfied for a royalty stacking problem to exist: (a) innovation must be cumulative, so that the patents are complementary; (b) there must be many patents for a given product; and (c) the many patents must be held by numerous, distinct rights holders. Second, royalty stacking may not be a problem even if the three necessary conditions are met; i.e., the three necessary conditions are not sufficient. And, third, several market mechanisms, such as cross licensing or voluntary patent pools, can be used to mitigate the costs of multiple concurrent patent negotiations. We conclude that the so-called royalty stacking problem is more myth than reality and that there is no reason to adopt the dramatic reforms in antitrust and patent law that have been recently proposed by, inter alia, Lemley and Shapiro (2006).
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Activity Is Required at Early Times for Accurate Processing and Accumulation of the Human Cytomegalovirus UL122-123 and UL37 Immediate-Early Transcripts and at Later Times for Virus Production

ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection leads to dysregulation of multiple cell cycle-regulatory proteins. In this study, we examined the effects of inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) activity on viral replication. With the drug Roscovitine, a specific inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9, we have shown that during the first 6 h of infection, cyclin-dependent kinase-dependent events occurred that included the regulated processing and accumulation of the immediate-early (IE) UL122-123 transcripts and UL36-37 transcripts. Altered processing of UL122-123 led to a loss of IE1-72 and an increase in IE2-86. The ratio of spliced to unspliced UL37 transcripts also changed. These effects did not require de novo protein synthesis or degradation of proteins by the proteasome. Addition of Roscovitine at the beginning of the infection was also associated with inhibition of expression of selected viral early gene products, viral DNA replication, and late viral gene expression. When Roscovitine was added after the first 6 h of infection, the effects on IE gene expression were no longer observed and viral replication proceeded through the late phase, but viral titers were reduced. The reduction in viral titer was observed even when Roscovitine was first added at 48 h postinfection, indicating that cyclin-dependent kinase activity is required at both IE and late times. Flavopiridol, another specific inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases, had similar effects on IE and early gene expression. These results underscore the importance of accurate RNA processing and reiterate the significant role of cell cycle-regulatory factors in HCMV infection.
Elucidating the role of WRKY27 in male sterility in Arabidopsis

ABSTRACT The WRKY proteins belong to a superfamily of TFs that play pivotal roles in responses to a wide range of biotic, abiotic, developmental and physiologic cues. Here, we assayed the accumulation of basal WRKY27 transcripts in diverse tissue including root, shoot, leaf and flowers. We demonstrated that plants over-expressing WRKY27 transcript levels exhibit growth aberrations and fertility defects. Scanning electron microscopic data suggest that WRKY27 overexpressor plants exhibit pollen dehiscence defects. Our fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis assay showed that flowers of plants overexpressing WRKY27 display significantly decreased pollen viability. These sterility-related phenotypes were not rescued by the exogenous applications of different phytohormones. Our results indicate the involvement of WRKY27 in particular for proper plant biomass accumulation and male fertility.
Fragmentation Versus Consolidation of Securities Trading: Evidence From the Operation of Rule 19C‐31

Stock exchanges defend their rules requiring members to trade listed stocks on an exchange floor as a means of achieving consolidation of trading, which, it is argued, minimizes trading costs to investors. By virtue of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 19c‐3, however, these exchange rules cannot apply to stocks newly listed after April 26, 1979. The objective of the Securities and Exchange Commission rule was to end what was viewed as restraint of desirable competition that would more than compensate for any cost saving resulting from consolidation. By comparing the cost of trading (measured by bid‐ask spreads and returns variance) for the two distinct groups of stocks—those listed before April 26, 1979, and those listed after—we test these competing views. We find that Rule 19c‐3 has not caused any reduction in spreads but may have caused an increase and has had no effect on returns variance.
The World Bank or Polanyi: Markets, Poverty and Social Well-being in Latin America

Ever since the presidency of Robert McNamara (1968–81), the World Bank has made much of its commitment to eliminating poverty. At the turn of the millennium, some of its publications carried a logo proclaiming ‘Our dream is a world free of poverty’; it can for example be seen on the back cover of its 2000/01 World Development Report (WDR) which is on the theme of ‘Attacking Poverty’. Together with the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Bank has endorsed a number of international development goals for 2015, including that of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty over the 25-year period beginning in 1990. In seeking to achieve such a goal, the Bank has shown over the 1990s a willingness to develop its understanding of what constitutes poverty and how it can be eliminated. During the writing of the 2000 World Development Report, attempts were made to balance the Bank’s longstanding emphasis on economic growth and the central role of free markets in achieving it, with a new emphasis on the need to empower the poor and to institute government controls on capital in ows where they might be necessary to temper the volatility of capital  ows. Differences within the Bank on the emphases to be given to these differing elements led not only to the resignation of the Report’s director, Ravi Kanbur, but to the departure of the World Bank’s chief economist, Joseph Stiglitz, under pressure from US Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers. For the Bank, therefore, it is clear that much is at stake in these debates. Much more importantly, the prospect of achieving the ambitious goal of poverty reduction set by the international community for 2015 rests on the policy consensus that emerges. For these reasons, it invites the attention of international political economy (IPE) scholars. Using a political economy approach this article will interrogate the dominant understanding of the role of markets in achieving social well-being and, drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi, will suggest alternative avenues for theorising this relationship . The article begins by critically examining how the 2000/01 WDR understands the role of markets in reducing poverty and how it understands poverty. The article then draws on authoritative data about poverty in Latin
Revised planning matrix of quality function deployment

Quality function deployment (QFD) has been adopted to improve product quality and development in many fields. Numerous studies have demonstrated that attribute importance and attribute performance have a causal relationship and the customer self-stated raw importance is not the actual importance of a customer attribute. These findings generate questions regarding the applicability of the conventional planning matrix (PM) of QFD. This study presents a revised PM that integrates a back-propagation neural network and three-factor theory to assist practitioners in determining the actual importance of customer attributes. An illustrative case demonstrates the effectiveness of the revised PM and identifies the shortcomings generated when applying the conventional PM.
The effect of foreign real estate investments on house prices: evidence from emerging economies

In recent years, most emerging economies have experienced large foreign real estate investment (FREI) and an appreciation of house prices. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the effects of FREI on house prices by employing a panel VAR model. Using data from 21 emerging economies over the period 2000--2008, our empirical results show that FREI contributes to house price increases. Moreover, the results indicate that the dominant source of house price fluctuations in emerging economies come from the housing market itself.
Deferoxamine Versus Combined Therapy for Chelating Liver, Spleen and Bone Marrow Iron in β-Thalassemic Patients: A Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the effect of iron chelation on liver, spleen and bone marrow. We examined 21 β-thalassemic patients undergoing deferoxamine (DFO) (9/21) or combined therapy [DFO and deferiprone (L1), 12/21] with two abdominal MRI studies using T1-w/Pd-w/T2*-wGRE and T1-wTSE sequences. Changes in serum ferritin (DF%), and liver, spleen and marrow to paraspinous muscles signal intensity ratios (SI) in T1-wTSE sequence were calculated as D%=[(2ndvalue-1st value)/1st value] ×100%. Negative DF% and positive D(SI)% indicated reduction of iron. Although 17/21 (80.9%) patients demonstrated reduction in ferritin, only 8/21 (38%), 7/21 (33.3%) and 7/21 (33.3%) patients had decreased liver, spleen and marrow iron. Patients undergoing combined therapy showed significantly greater reduction (Student's t-test, p < 0.05) or less increase (t-test, p <0.05) in iron stores. Combined therapy is more effective than DFO for removing and preventing liver, spleen and bone marrow iron accumulation in β-thalassemic patients. Magnetic resonance imaging is valuable for organ-specific monitoring of chelation therapy.
Análise do processo da comunicação contábil: uma contribuição para a solução de problemas semânticos, utilizando conceitos da teoria da comunicação

Considering the understandability of accounting information as one of the necessary attributes for Accounting to be able to assist in the decision-making process, this paper discusses to which degree the users of such information manage to understand the terminology used in accounting disclosure. Literature reveals that, although the preoccupation with the understandability aspect in accounting is not new, it is increasing to the extent that the variety of users of accounting information is amplified, whether this is urged by the phenomenon of market globalization, or by the progress of information technology. Besides, it is observed that the most traditional users, such as suppliers, clients and investors, are becoming more demanding in relation to the quantity and quality of the information they are offered. On the basis of current literature and some research results, the hypothesis is brought up that many terms used in financial statements are not understood by the persons they are destined for, or are interpreted in a different way than what was pretended. It is alleged that one of the probable causes of this lack of correspondence between intended and attained meanings lies not only in the use of eminently technical terms, but also in the habit of accountants to attribute technical meanings to words used with a different meaning in common language. As an example, we quote that the user can not only ignore the accounting meaning of a term like goodwill, but can also attribute an unwanted meaning to the term depreciation. If this can occur with those users that are more familiar with accounting terminology, such as, for example, investors, creditors and other similar users, what can be said then about the less traditional users, such as environmental protection entities, non-governmental organizations in defense of human rights, or even the common citizen who, by himself, turns to financial statements to know about the relation between companies and the environment they work in. In view of what was mentioned above, and considering that Accounting is characterized as a communication process, the use of concepts from Communication Theory is proposed, in order to develop and improve methodologies that allow for the adjustment of the terminology used in accounting disclosure to the characteristics and necessities of its users. If the Theory referred to has been used very successfully in various areas of human knowledge, such as economy, psychology and biophysics, it is probable that Accounting will also be able to take advantage of its conceptual framework in order to reach a higher level of efficacy in the accounting information communication process.
Analysis of expression profile of mce operon genes (mce1, mce2, mce3 operon) in different Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates at different growth phases

Background & objectives: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) has four homologous mammalian cell entry (mce) operons (mce1-4) that encode exported proteins and have a possible role in the virulence mechanism of this pathogen. The expression of mce operon is considered to be complex and not completely understood. Although expression of mce operon at different in vitro growth phases has been studied earlier, its expression in different M. tuberculosis isolates under different growth phases is not yet studied. The present preliminary study was conducted on a limited number of isolates to know the trend of expression pattern of mce operon genes in different M. tuberculosis isolates under different growth stages. Methods: In this study, we monitored the transcriptional profile of selected mce operon genes (mce1A, mce1D, mce2A, mce2D, mce3A, mce3C) in different M. tuberculosis isolates (MDR1, MDR2, and sensitive isolate) at early exponential and stationary phases using real-time quantitative PCR. Results: The expression ratio of all selected mce operon genes in all M. tuberculosis isolates was reduced at the initial phase and increased substantially at a later phase of growth. Higher expression of mce1 operon genes was found in all M. tuberculosis isolates as compared to other mce operon genes (mce2 and mce3 operons) at stationary growth phase. Interpretation & conclusions: The higher expression of mce operon genes at stationary phase (as compared to early exponential phase) suggested growth phase dependent expression of mce operon genes. This indicated that the mce operon genes might have a role in M. tuberculosis survival and adaptation on the onset of adverse condition like stationary phase. Identification of differentially expressed genes will add to our understanding of the bacilli involved in adaptation to different growth conditions.
Commentary: Molecular Assay Validation Using Genomic Sequence Databases

ABSTRACT Whole-genome sequence databases offer new in silico approaches for designing and validating PCR assays in the clinical microbiology laboratory. An article in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (M. J. Jansen van Rensburg, C. Swift, A. J. Cody, C. Jenkins, and M. C. J. Maiden, J Clin Microbiol, 54:2882–2890, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01522-16) demonstrates the use of publicly available genomic sequence data to evaluate a PCR assay for distinguishing Campylobacter species.
THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF CHILDHOOD EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE : BEHAVIOURAL AND BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

Importance The intergenerational transmission of childhood exposure to violence has powerful clinical and social consequences, consolidating social adversity and psychopathology in future generations. The 2007 Policy Briefing by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, “Preventing child maltreatment in Europe: a public health approach” (Briefing), recognizes that “there is an association between maltreatment in childhood and the risk of later . becoming a perpetrator of violence or other antisocial behaviour as a teenager or adult”. The report also highlights that the costs are both overt (for example, medical care for victims, treatment of offenders and legal costs for social care) and less obvious (for example, criminal justice and prosecution costs, specialist education and mental health provision). In Europe, only the United Kingdom has calculated the total economic burden, estimated to be £735 million in 1996 (Briefing). There is no doubt that an enormous amount of work and resources are going into prevention strategies and public health approaches: however, it is surprising that very little research has been conducted in humans to try to understand why childhood maltreatment is passed from one generation to the next, and what are the biological and molecular mechanisms underlying this intergenerational effect. With the recent document on the “Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health” (Collins et al., 2011) underscoring the need for research that uses a life-course approach, and indicating the identification of “modifiable social and biological risk factors across the life course” as one of the grand challenges to be addressed urgently, this issue is also extremely timely.
Entrepreneurial Values and the Ethnic Enterprise: An Examination of Six Subcultures

A vital question receiving only limited attention in the extant research concerns the implications of culturally based values for the successful creation and growth of entrepreneurial ventures. This study explores core values held by entrepreneurs in growth‐oriented firms belonging to six subcultures based in the state of Hawaii. Thirty first‐generation entrepreneurs each were interviewed from the populations of Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and native Hawaiian firms. Evidence is provided of commonalities and differences in the value profiles of the different types of entrepreneurs. While some of the salient values are clearly traceable to the entrepreneur's native culture, it appears that entrepreneurs share certain core values regardless of cultural origin. Evidence is also provided of linkages between values and specific operational practices within the ventures studied. Implications are drawn for ongoing theory development and managerial practice.