Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Hybrid Sensor Kinase RscS Integrates Positive and Negative Signals To Modulate Biofilm Formation in Vibrio fischeri

ABSTRACT Overexpression of the Vibrio fischeri sensor kinase RscS induces expression of the syp (symbiosis polysaccharide) gene cluster and promotes biofilm phenotypes such as wrinkled colony morphology, pellicle formation, and surface adherence. RscS is predicted to be a hybrid sensor kinase with a histidine kinase/ATPase (HATPase) domain, a receiver (Rec) domain, and a histidine phosphotransferase (Hpt) domain. Bioinformatic analysis also revealed the following three potential signal detection domains within RscS: two transmembrane helices forming a transmembrane region (TMR), a large periplasmic (PP) domain, and a cytoplasmic PAS domain. In this work, we genetically dissected the contributions of these domains to RscS function. Substitutions within the carboxy-terminal domain supported identification of RscS as a hybrid sensor kinase; disruption of both the HATPase and Rec domains eliminated induction of syp transcription, wrinkled colony morphology, pellicle formation, and surface adherence, while disruption of Hpt resulted in decreased activity. The PAS domain was also critical for RscS activity; substitutions in PAS resulted in a loss of activity. Generation of a cytoplasmic, N-terminal deletion derivative of RscS resulted in a partial loss of activity, suggesting a role for localization to the membrane and/or sequences within the TMR and PP domain. Finally, substitutions within the first transmembrane helix of the TMR and deletions within the PP domain both resulted in increased activity. Thus, RscS integrates both inhibitory and stimulatory signals from the environment to regulate biofilm formation by V. fischeri.
The State of American Entrepreneurship: New Estimates of the Quality and Quantity of Entrepreneurship for 32 Us States, 1988-2014

While official measures of business dynamism have seen a long-term decline, early-stage venture financing of new companies has reached levels not observed since the late 1990s, resulting in a sharp debate about the state of American entrepreneurship. Building on Guzman and Stern (2015a; 2015b), this paper offers new evidence to inform this debate by estimating measures of entrepreneurial quality based on predictive analytics and comprehensive business registries. Our estimates suggest that the probability of a significant growth outcome (either an IPO or high-value acquisition) is highly skewed and predicted by observables at or near the time of business registration: 69% of realized growth events are in the top 5% of our estimated growth distribution. This high level of skewness motivates the development of three new economic statistics that simultaneously account for both the quantity as well as the quality of entrepreneurship: the Entrepreneurial Quality Index (EQI, measuring the average quality level among a group of start-ups within a given cohort), the Regional Entrepreneurship Cohort Potential Index (RECPI, measuring the growth potential of firms founded within a given region and time period) and the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Index (REAI, measuring the performance of a region over time in realizing the potential of firms founded there). We use these statistics to establish several new findings about the history and state of US entrepreneurship using data for 15 states (covering 51% of the overall US economy) from 1988 through 2014. First, in contrast the secular decline in the aggregate quantity of entrepreneurship observed in series such as the Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS), the growth potential of start-up companies (RECPI relative to GDP) has followed a cyclical pattern that seems sensitive to the capital market environment and overall economic conditions. Second, while the peak value of RECPI is recorded in 2000, the level during the first decade during this century was actually higher than the late 1980s and first half of the 1990s, and also has experienced a sharp upward swing beginning in 2010. Even after controlling for changes in the overall size of the economy, the second highest level of entrepreneurial growth potential is registered in 2014. Third, the likelihood of start-up firms for a given quality level to realize their potential (REAI) declined sharply in the late 1990s, and did not recover through 2008. These findings suggest that divergent assessments of the state of American entrepreneurship can potentially be reconciled by explicitly adopting a quantitative approach to the measurement of entrepreneurial quality.
Searching for the egg-marking signal in honeybees

Behavioural bioassays have shown that worker honeybees can distinguish between worker-laid and queen-laid eggs. By eating worker-laid eggs, nest-mate workers prevent each other from reproducing, a behaviour known as worker policing. However, the recognition cue used by worker honeybees to discriminate between worker-laid and queen-laid eggs remains elusive. This study describes observations made and experiments conducted to elucidate the nature of the recognition cue. No visually apparent physical differences were found between worker-laid and queen-laid eggs using scanning electron micrographs (SEMs) magnified up to 2500 times, which indicates that the cue is probably chemical in nature. We confirmed that the signal probably resides on the queen-laid and not the worker-laid eggs, since a worker-laid egg is protected when placed in contact with a queen-laid egg. We conducted a series of standard egg-removal bioassays in queenright colonies using queen-laid and workerlaid eggs treated with a wide range of potential recognition chemicals, solvents, buffers or gland extracts. The aim was either to disrupt or remove the egg-marking signal from queen-laid eggs, or to add the signal to worker-laid eggs. Despite a comprehensive set of experiments, we were unable to alter the egg-marking signal on queen-laid eggs or transfer the signal from queen-laid eggs to worker-laid eggs. Furthermore, two candidate signals, esters from queens and eicosenol from workers, were shown not to be the cues used by workers. This indicates that the egg-marking signal in honeybees is remarkably robust and consists of a chemical or group of chemicals not previously associated with chemical signalling in social insects.
Memory-interference model for multiprocessors based on semi-Markov processes

The interference that results from processors attempting to simultaneously access the same main memory in a multiprocessor can be reduced by constructing the memory from separate modules accessible through a crossbar network. The effectiveness of this solution depends on the number of processors and the number of memory modules, and on the parameters of the computation being executed, such as the think time of the processors, the frequency of their access to main memory, and the length of time these accesses are connected to memory. This paper presents a memory-interference model that allows one to evaluate the performance of crossbar-based multiprocessors. The model is a discrete-time model that explicitly describes each processing element's behaviour by means of a semi-Markov process. The chief advantage of the semi-Markov model is its conciseness and its capability of accounting for variance in model parameters. The model is first developed for the case in which memory accesses are directed to each memory module equiprobably. Central to the model is a theorem that gives the residual waiting time experienced by a processor when accessing a busy memory. Comparisons are made with earlier models. These comparisons show the semi-Markov model to be more accurate, particularly in those cases where there is a high degree of variance in the connection time. Finally, the model is generalised to deal with cases where accesses to each memory module are not equiprobable.
Group Violence, Ethnic Diversity, and Citizen Participation: Evidence from Indonesia

We study the impact of violent conflict on social capital, as measured by citizen participation in community groups, defined by four activity types: governance, social service, infrastructure development and risk-sharing. Combining household panel data from Indonesia with conflict event information, we find an overall decrease in citizen contributions in districts affected by group violence in the early post-Suharto transition period. However, participation in communities with a high degree of ethnic polarization is less affected, and is even stimulated for local governance and risk-sharing activities. Moreover, individual engagement appears to depend on the involvement of other members from the same ethnic group, which points toward building of intra-ethnic social networks in the presence of violence. Finally, our results show the danger of generalization when dealing with citizen participation in community activities. We find a large variety of responses depending on the activity and its economic and social functions. We also find large observed and unobserved individual heterogeneities of the effect of violence on participation. Once an appropriate nomenclature of activities is used and controls for heterogeneity are applied, we find that the ethnic and social configuration of society is central in understanding citizen participation.
Nosocomial rotavirus infection: An up to date evaluation of European studies

ABSTRACT Rotavirus (RV) is worldwide considered as the most important viral agent of acute gastroenteritis in children less than 5 y. Since 2006, the availability of anti-RV vaccines has deeply modified the incidence and economic burden of RV infection. In Europe, some countries have introduced an anti-RV vaccination program in the last 10 y. Although community acquired RV (CARV) disease is the most studied condition of RV infection, recently some authors have highlighted the importance of nosocomial RV (nRV) disease as an emerging public health issue. The aim of this review is to summarize the epidemiology of both CARV and nRV, in order to discuss the difficulty of a clear evaluation of the burden of the disease in absence of comparable data. In particular, we focused our attention to European studies regarding nRV in terms of divergences related to definition, report of incidence rate and methodological issues.
The Promotion of Place: Immigration Policies, Citizenship and Economic Reform in New Zealand

ii Acknowledgements. iii Notes on Referencing. iv List of Tables and Figures. vi List of Acronyms . vii Chapter 1: Introduction. 1 Model Migrants. 6 Economic Reforms. 8 Chapter 2: Organised Migration, Nation-Building and Citizenship. 16 Studying the State. 19 Methods of Investigation. 20 Historical Background. 21 Building the Nation. 29 State Formation and Immigration Possibilities. 32 A Revolution in Colonial Thought? 34 Nation-Building. 44 ‘Good Jobs, Good Pay, Good Living’. 55 Pacific Citizenship? 58 Chapter 3: Regulatory Control in New Zealand. 61 Egalitarianism No More? 68 The Fourth Labour Government: Birth of the ‘Market-State’. 71 Social Citizenship’s Coup d’état? 72 The Intellectual Impetus of the New Right Revolution. 75 Neoliberal Immigration Reforms. 80 Business Migration and the Beginnings of Commodified Citizenship. 80 Chapter 4: Commodified Citizenship in the Market-State. 89 Neoliberal New Zealand and the de-Ethinicisation of the State. 93 Recent Developments in the Market-State. 96 A History of the Business and Investor Migrant Schemes. 98 The Global Competition for High-net Worth Individuals.100 A Growth Industry? 103 Chapter 5: Conclusion. 107 Sentimental Citizenship. 108 References Cited. 110
Pregnancy Prognosis Associated With an Isolated Single Umbilical Artery in Twin Pregnancy

To determine the prognosis of an isolated single umbilical artery (SUA) in a twin pregnancy, we selected twin pregnancies with a second trimester ultrasound diagnosing a SUA in at least one fetus at our tertiary hospital. This was confirmed by placental histopathology or by expert review of ultrasound images. Cases were identified by searching the hospital ultrasound database over a period of 7.5 years. Higher order multiples or coexistent aneuploidy or major anomalies were excluded. Each case of an isolated SUA was assigned three consecutive twin pregnancy controls paired for chorionicity and maternal age. Primary outcomes were preterm birth <34 weeks, small for gestational age (SGA) or perinatal death. Other outcomes included antenatal growth restriction, mode of delivery, and admission to neonatal intensive care or special care nursery. Nine pregnancies (18 fetuses) were identified for analysis as cases. Isolated SUA was associated with preterm birth <34 weeks (odds ratio = 12.2; 95% CI = 2.0–75.2; p = .005) but not for SGA. There was also no difference in SGA between the affected twin and its normal co-twin. Perinatal death was increased but after controlling for gestational age and clustering this finding was no longer significant. We conclude that isolated SUA in twins adds a degree of risk to an already high-risk pregnancy but does not increase the need for surveillance for growth restriction.
On the number of young stellar discs in the Galactic Centre

Observations of the Galactic Centre show evidence of-disc-like structures of very young stars orbiting the central supermassive black hole within a distance of a few 0.1 pc. While it is widely accepted that about half of the stars form a relatively flat disc rotating clockwise oil the sky, there is a substantial ongoing debate oil whether there is a Second, counter-clockwise disc of stars.
The representation of AC machine dynamics by complex signal flow graphs

Induction motors are modeled by nonlinear higher-order dynamic systems of considerable complexity. The dynamic analysis based on the complex notation exhibits a formal correspondence to the description using matrices of axes-oriented components; yet differences exist. The complex notation appears superior in that it allows the distinguishing between the system eigenfrequencies and the angular velocity of a reference frame which serves as the observation platform. The approach leads to the definition of single complex eigenvalues that do not have conjugate values associated with them. The use of complex state variables further permits the visualization of AC machine dynamics by complex signal flow graphs. These simple structures assist to form an understanding of the internal dynamic processes of a machine and their interactions with external controls. >
Bayesian extensions to non-negative matrix factorisation for audio signal modelling

We describe the underlying probabilistic generative signal model of non-negative matrix factorisation (NMF) and propose a realistic conjugate priors on the matrices to be estimated. A conjugate Gamma chain prior enables modelling the spectral smoothness of natural sounds in general, and other prior knowledge about the spectra of the sounds can be used without resorting to too restrictive techniques where some of the parameters are fixed. The resulting algorithm, while retaining the attractive features of standard NMF such as fast convergence and easy implementation, outperforms existing NMF strategies in a single channel audio source separation and detection task.
Teacher Attitudes about Compensation Reform: Implications for Reform Implementation

Concerns about the quality of the teacher workforce and the distribution of teacher quality among schools have led to calls to reform teacher compensation. The authors present the results of the 2006 Washington State Teacher Compensation survey on teachers' attitudes about this issue. By linking survey results to detailed data on school and district characteristics, they analyze how teacher attitudes differ by individual characteristics such as subject area, school assignment, or experience, as well as workplace characteristics such as school performance and the level of trust among teachers and principals. The results suggest teachers' attitudes toward reform are shaped by self-interest as well as by professional norms of collegiality—two factors that can push teachers' attitudes toward compensation reform in opposite directions. For example, teachers with middle and high school assignments in mathematics and science are more supportive of subject-area bonuses; the more trust that exists among teachers, however, the less teachers support merit pay.
The p38α MAPK Function in Osteoprecursors Is Required for Bone Formation and Bone Homeostasis in Adult Mice

Background p38 MAPK activity plays an important role in several steps of the osteoblast lineage progression through activation of osteoblast-specific transcription factors and it is also essential for the acquisition of the osteoblast phenotype in early development. Although reports indicate p38 signalling plays a role in early skeletal development, its specific contributions to adult bone remodelling are still to be clarified. Methodology/Principal Findings We evaluated osteoblast-specific deletion of p38α to determine its significance in early skeletogenesis, as well as for bone homeostasis in adult skeleton. Early p38α deletion resulted in defective intramembranous and endochondral ossification in both calvaria and long bones. Mutant mice showed reduction of trabecular bone volume in distal femurs, associated with low trabecular thickness. In addition, knockout mice also displayed decreased femoral cortical bone volume and thickness. Deletion of p38α did not affect osteoclast function. Yet it impaired osteoblastogenesis and osteoblast maturation and activity through decreased expression of osteoblast-specific transcription factors and their targets. Furthermore, the inducible Cre system allowed us to control the onset of p38α disruption after birth by removal of doxycycline. Deletion of p38α at three or eight weeks postnatally led to significantly lower trabecular and cortical bone volume after 6 or 12 months. Conclusions Our data demonstrates that, in addition to early skeletogenesis, p38α is essential for osteoblasts to maintain their function in mineralized adult bone, as bone anabolism should be sustained throughout life. Moreover, our data also emphasizes that clinical development of p38 inhibitors should take into account their potential bone effects.
Using Web Catalogs to Locate and Categorize Unknown Furniture Pieces in 3 D Laser Scans

In this article, we address the problem of exploiting the structure in today’s workplace interiors in order for service robots to add semantics to their sensor readings and to build models of their environment by learning generic descriptors from online object databases. These world models include information about the location, the shape and the pose of furniture pieces (chairs, armchairs, tables and sideboards), which allow robots to perform their tasks more flexibly and efficiently. To recognize the different objects in real environments, where high clutter and occlusions are common, our method automatically learns a vocabulary of object parts from CAD models downloaded from the Web. After a segmentation and a probabilistic Hough voting step, likely object locations and a list of its assumed parts can be obtained without full visibility and without any prior about their locations. These detections are then verified by finding the best fitting object model, filtering out false positives and enabling interaction with the objects. In the experimental section, we evaluate our method on real 3D scans of indoor scenes and present our insights on what would be required from a WWW for robots in order to support the generalization of this approach.
D-Term Supersymmetry Breaking from Branes

Metastable supersymmetry breaking configurations of D-branes and NS5-branes in string theory often owe their existence to classical gravitational interactions between the branes. We show that in the effective theory of the light fields, these interactions give rise to a non-canonical K\"ahler potential and other D-terms. String theory provides a UV completion in which these non-renormalizable terms can be computed. We use these observations to clarify the relation between the phase structure of ISS-type models and their brane realizations.
Integration of Buffer Management and Query Optimization in Relational Database Environment

In today’s relational database systems, query optimi7alion and hufTer management are generally treated indrpcndently. I Iowever, the query access plan con(ains information on data access patterns which can he useful hints to the huffcr matIager. T;urlhermore, the optimal access plans under dilTerent huffcr sizes can be quite difTcrent. In this paper, an integrated approach to buffer management and query optimization is proposed and analyzed. ‘I he query strategy of all transaction types is simultaneously considered together willt the hulTcr allocalion strategy so as to optimbe overall system performance. As the buffer allocation depends upon (he hulTer holding time or transaction response time whicft iz dcfrrn~ir~rd h) the buffer allocation and query optimization slrnlcgirs, ;III oplimization method combining a integer programming model with a queueing model applied iteratively is developed lo capture this effect. To reduce the size of the optimi7atinn problem, a methodology hascd on the concept of hulrcr consumplion is proposed to pre-analyze the query and suhstacltially cut down the access plans to be considered. A detailed simulation is used to demonstrate fhe superiority of ihe intcgrated strategy as compared to other hulTcr tnannpenrrnt strategies based on working set and hot set.
The effects of mindfulness‐based group intervention on the mental health of middle‐aged Korean women in community

This study was conducted to develop a mindfulness and self-compassion enhancement intervention for middle-aged women who complained of emotional distress and to ascertain whether participation in the mindfulness-based programme was associated with an increase in psychological well-being and the improvement of psychological symptoms. The results showed that time by group interactions were significant in improving psychological well-being, depression, anxiety, hostility, somatization, positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). These results suggest that participants in the mindfulness and self-compassion group programme appeared to have enhanced psychological well-being and improved psychological distress. The study findings also suggest that mindfulness and self-compassion enhancement programme may be an intervention with potential for helping many individuals to learn to deal with emotional distress. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pay for Percentile

We propose an incentive pay scheme for educators that links educator compensation to the ranks of their students within appropriately defined comparison sets, and we show that under certain conditions our scheme induces teachers to allocate socially optimal levels of effort to all students. Because this scheme employs only ordinal information, our scheme allows education authorities to employ completely new assessments at each testing date without ever having to equate various assessment forms. This approach removes incentives for teachers to teach to a particular assessment form and eliminates opportunities to influence reward pay by corrupting the equating process or the scales used to report assessment results. Our system links compensation to the outcomes of properly seeded contests rather than cardinal measures of achievement growth. Thus, education authorities can employ our incentive scheme for educators while employing a separate system for measuring growth in student achievement that involves no stakes for educators. This approach does not create direct incentives for educators to take actions that contaminate the measurement of student progress.