Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CdnL, a member of the large CarD-like family of bacterial proteins, is vital for Myxococcus xanthus and differs functionally from the global transcriptional regulator CarD

CarD, a global transcriptional regulator in Myxococcus xanthus, interacts with CarG via CarDNter, its N-terminal domain, and with DNA via a eukaryotic HMGA-type C-terminal domain. Genomic analysis reveals a large number of standalone proteins resembling CarDNter. These constitute, together with the RNA polymerase (RNAP) interacting domain, RID, of transcription–repair coupling factors, the CarD_TRCF protein family. We show that one such CarDNter-like protein, M. xanthus CdnL, cannot functionally substitute CarDNter (or vice versa) nor interact with CarG. Unlike CarD, CdnL is vital for growth, and lethality due to its absence is not rescued by homologs from various other bacteria. In mycobacteria, with no endogenous DksA, the function of the CdnL homolog mirrors that of Escherichia coli DksA. Our finding that CdnL, like DksA, is indispensable in M. xanthus implies that they are not functionally redundant. Cells are normal on CdnL overexpression, but divide aberrantly on CdnL depletion. CdnL localizes to the nucleoid, suggesting piggyback recruitment by factors such as RNAP, which we show interacts with CdnL, CarDNter and RID. Our study highlights a complex network of interactions involving these factors and RNAP, and points to a vital role for M. xanthus CdnL in an essential DNA transaction that affects cell division.
American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society statement on pulmonary rehabilitation.

Linda Nici, Claudio Donner, Emiel Wouters, Richard Zuwallack, Nicolino Ambrosino, Jean Bourbeau, Mauro Carone, Bartolome Celli, Marielle Engelen, Bonnie Fahy, Chris Garvey, Roger Goldstein, Rik Gosselink, Suzanne Lareau, Neil MacIntyre, Francois Maltais, Mike Morgan, Denis O’Donnell, Christian Prefault, Jane Reardon, Carolyn Rochester, Annemie Schols, Sally Singh, and Thierry Troosters, on behalf of the ATS/ERS Pulmonary Rehabilitation Writing Committee
Gross job flows between plants and industries

A remarkable feature of the current U.S. economic expansion has been its ability to shrug off the adverse effects of financial crises and economic slowdowns around the world for nearly two years. Recently, however, foreign-sector developments have triggered a sizable shift in the sectoral composition of U.S. employment. By early 1999, employment growth in the goods-producing sector was still humming along. Historically, substantial shifts in labor demand between sectors have been correlated with the business cycle. But recent developments are unusual and highlight our incomplete understanding of this correlation. This article provides new data and evidence on the connection between shifts in labor demand, or job reallocation, and the business cycle. The authors find that all meaningful measures of job reallocation between plants and between industries are significantly countercyclical. They also find econometric evidence that job reallocation may be an important determinant of the natural rate of unemployment, and that dispersion in relative prices may be an important determinant of reallocation
Long‐term nitrogen additions increase likelihood of climate stress and affect recovery from wildfire in a lowland heath

Increases in the emissions and associated atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) have the potential to cause significant changes to the structure and function of N‐limited ecosystems. Here, we present the results of a long‐term (13 year) experiment assessing the impacts of N addition (30 kg ha−1 yr−1) on a UK lowland heathland under a wide range of environmental conditions, including the occurrence of prolonged natural drought episodes and a severe summer fire. Our findings indicate that elevated N deposition results in large, persistent effects on Calluna growth, phenology and chemistry, severe suppression of understorey lichen flora and changes in soil biogeochemistry. Growing season rainfall was found to be a strong driver of inter‐annual variation in Calluna growth and, although interactions between N and rainfall for shoot growth were not significant until the later phase of the experiment, N addition exacerbated the extent of drought injury to Calluna shoots following naturally occurring droughts in 2003 and 2009. Following a severe wildfire at the experimental site in 2006, heathland regeneration dynamics were significantly affected by N, with a greater abundance of pioneering moss species and suppression of the lichen flora in plots receiving N additions. Significant interactions between climate and N were also apparent post fire, with the characteristic stimulation in Calluna growth in +N plots suppressed during dry years. Carbon (C) and N budgets demonstrate large increases in both above‐ and below‐ground stocks of these elements in N‐treated plots prior to the fire, despite higher levels of soil microbial activity and organic matter turnover. Although much of the organic material was removed during the fire, pre‐existing treatment differences were still evident following the burn. Post fire accumulation of below‐ground C and N stocks was increased rapidly in N‐treated plots, highlighting the role of N deposition in ecosystem C sequestration.
Multiple mating by females of two Bactrocera species (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae)

Abstract Multiple mating was investigated in two tephritid species when females were under minimal male pressure because they were each confined with a single male in cages 20×20×20 cm and observed daily until they died. Laboratory-reared females of Bactrocera cucumis (French) lived up to 274 days and refractory periods averaged 59–63 days. However, the distribution of matings among B. cucumis females was not significantly different to that expected by chance. Wild females of Bactrocera cacuminata (Hering) reared from field-collected fruits of Solanum mauritianum Scopoli lived for up to 134 days and mated up to three times with refractory periods between matings averaging 27–39 days. The distribution of the number of matings among females of B. cacuminata was non-random because of the high proportion of non-maters (50%); but, when only females mating more than once were considered, there was no significant departure from random expectation.
DC and RF Characteristics of AlGaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN Double-Heterojunction HEMTs

We present the detailed dc and radio-frequency characteristics of an Al0.3Ga0. 7N/GaN/In0.1Ga0. 9 N/GaN double-heterojunction HEMT (DH-HEMT) structure. This structure incorporates a thin (3 nm) In0.1Ga0. 9N notch layer inserted at a location that is 6-nm away from the AlGaN/GaN heterointerface. The In0.1Ga0. 9N layer provides a unique piezoelectric polarization field which results in a higher potential barrier at the backside of the two-dimensional electron gas channel, effectively improving the carrier confinement and then reducing the buffer leakage. Both depletion-mode (D-mode) and enhancement-mode (E-mode) devices were fabricated on this new structure. Compared with the baseline AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, the DH-HEMT shows lower drain leakage current. The gate leakage current is also found to be reduced, owing to an improved surface morphology in InGaN-incorporated epitaxial structures. DC and small- and large-signal microwave characteristics, together with the linearity performances, have been investigated. The channel transit delay time analysis also revealed that there was a minor channel in the InGaN layer in which the electrons exhibited a mobility slightly lower than the GaN channel. The E-mode DH-HEMTs were also fabricated using our recently developed CF4-based plasma treatment technique. The large-signal operation of the E-mode GaN-based HEMTs was reported for the first time. At 2 GHz, a 1times100 mum E-mode device demonstrated a maximum output power of 3.12 W/mm and a power-added efficiency of 49% with single-polarity biases (a gate bias of +0.5 V and a drain bias of 35 V). An output third-order interception point of 34.7 dBm was obtained in the E-mode HEMTs
Transcription factor binding site identification using the self-organizing map

MOTIVATION The automatic identification of over-represented motifs present in a collection of sequences continues to be a challenging problem in computational biology. In this paper, we propose a self-organizing map of position weight matrices as an alternative method for motif discovery. The advantage of this approach is that it can be used to simultaneously characterize every feature present in the dataset, thus lessening the chance that weaker signals will be missed. Features identified are ranked in terms of over-representation relative to a background model. RESULTS We present an implementation of this approach, named SOMBRERO (self-organizing map for biological regulatory element recognition and ordering), which is capable of discovering multiple distinct motifs present in a single dataset. Demonstrated here are the advantages of our approach on various datasets and SOMBRERO's improved performance over two popular motif-finding programs, MEME and AlignACE. AVAILABILITY SOMBRERO is available free of charge from http://bioinf.nuigalway. ie/sombrero SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION http://bioinf.nuigalway. ie/sombrero/additional.
Frequency and Severity of Diaper Dermatitis with Use of Traditional Chinese Cloth Diapers: Observations in 3‐ to 9‐Month‐Old Children

Abstract: Chinese cloth diapers differ from disposable diapers in several respects that are central to our understanding of the etiology of diaper dermatitis (DD), yet there are no published reports on the dermatological correlates of this manner of infant care, which is prevalent among the world’s second‐largest pediatric population. The objective was to determine the prevalence and severity of DD in exclusive users of Chinese cloth diapers. This observational study was conducted during a single home visit to 694 Chinese children who were exclusive users of cloth diapers in five inland cities of China. During each home visit, study nurses documented the presence and severity of DD using a visual dermatological scale and conducted transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and pH measurements. Diaper dermatitis was rare in the buttocks and genital area of the children (<20%) but was common in the perianal and intertriginous regions (50–70%). TEWL and pH were mildly higher in babies with DD than in those without DD in the genital and buttocks area. Diaper dermatitis is common in children who use traditional Chinese cloth diapers, especially in the perianal and intertriginous regions.
Recognizing Textual Entailment by Soft Dependency Tree Matching

We present a rule-based method for recognizing entailment relation between a pair of text fragments by comparing their dependency tree structures. We used a dependency parser to generate the dependency triples of the text-hypothesis pairs. A dependency triple is an arc in the dependency parse tree. Each triple in the hypothesis is checked against all the triples in the text to find a matching pair. We have developed a number of matching rules after a detailed analysis of the PETE dataset, which we used for the experiments. A successful match satisfying any of these rules assigns a matching score of 1 to the child node of that particular arc in the hypothesis dependency tree. Then the dependency parse tree is traversed in post- order way to obtain the final entailment score at the root node. The scores of the leaf nodes are propagated from the bottom of the tree to the non-leaf nodes, up to the root node. The entailment score of the root node is compared against a predefined threshold value to make the entailment decision. Experimental results on the PETE dataset show an accuracy of 87.69% on the development set and 73.75% on the test set, which outperforms the state-of-the-art results reported on this dataset so far. We did not use any other NLP tools or knowledge sources, to emphasize the role of dependency parsing in recognizing textual entailment.
Observations at backyard bird feeders influence the emotions and actions of people that feed birds

1. Backyard bird feeding is one of the most common ways people engage with wild‐ life in many parts of the world. Given its scale, it can have profound consequences for the ecology of feeder birds and their behaviour. While previous work has pri‐ marily explored socio‐demographic factors associated with bird feeding, how ob‐ servations of nature at backyard feeders (e.g. changes in feeder bird abundance, interaction with natural enemies and weather) influence people's propensity to feed birds remain largely unknown. 2. We examined the association between peoples’ observations at their backyard feeders and their emotions and behaviours related to providing food to birds. We conducted an online survey of a subset of
The BEACHES Study: health effects and exposures from non-point source microbial contaminants in subtropical recreational marine waters.

BACKGROUND Microbial water-quality indicators, in high concentrations in sewage, are used to determine whether water is safe for recreational purposes. Recently, the use of these indicators to regulate recreational water bodies, particularly in sub/tropical recreational marine waters without known sources of sewage, has been questioned. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the risk to humans from exposure to subtropical recreational marine waters with no known point source, and the possible relationship between microbe densities and reported symptoms in human subjects with random-exposure assignment and intensive individual microbial monitoring in this environment. METHODS A total of 1303 adult regular bathers were randomly assigned to bather and non-bather groups, with subsequent follow-up for reported illness, in conjunction with extensive environmental sampling of indicator organisms (enterococci). RESULTS Bathers were 1.76 times more likely to report gastrointestinal illness [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94-3.30; P = 0.07]; 4.46 times more likely to report acute febrile respiratory illness (95% CI 0.99-20.90; P = 0.051) and 5.91 times more likely to report a skin illness (95% CI 2.76-12.63; P < 0.0001) relative to non-bathers. Evidence of a dose-response relationship was found between skin illnesses and increasing enterococci exposure among bathers [1.46 times (95% CI 0.97-2.21; P = 0.07) per increasing log(10) unit of enterococci exposure], but not for gastrointestinal or respiratory illnesses. CONCLUSIONS This study indicated that bathers may be at increased risk of several illnesses relative to non-bathers, even in the absence of any known source of domestic sewage impacting the recreational marine waters. There was no dose-response relationship between gastroenteritis and increasing exposure to enterococci, even though many current water-monitoring standards use gastroenteritis as the major outcome illness.
Auricular Acupressure Can Modulate Pain Threshold

The objective of our study was to investigate if auriculotherapy (AT) can modulate pain threshold. In our experiments, AT consisted of placing Vaccaria seeds over the “fingers point” of one ear. Two groups of healthy volunteers were enrolled for the study. Each subject was asked to perform an autoalgometric test developed by our group on three occasions: before, 1 hour after, AT and 24 hours after AT. Participants of the first group received a 2-minute long session of AT, while participants of the second group received a 2-minute long session of sham treatment, consisting of a puncture/massage above the skin of the neck. The autoalgometric test consisted of applying an increasing pressure with the finger-tips and finger-backs of four fingers by the subjects themselves (i.e., eight sites were evaluated) against a round-shaped needle for two times: until a minimum pain sensation (first time, minimal test) or a maximally tolerable pain sensation (second time, maximal test). Our results showed a significant higher pain threshold in the maximal test at 24 hours after AT compared to sham treatment. This result indicates for the first time that AT can increase pain tolerability, rather than affecting the minimal pain threshold.
Evaluating the effectiveness of visual user interfaces for information retrieval

An integrated visual thesaurus and results browser to support information retrieval was designed using a task model of information searching. The system provided a hierarchical thesaurus with a results cluster display representing similarity between retrieved documents and relevance ranking using a bullseye metaphor. Latent semantic indexing (LSI) was used as the retrieval engine and to calculate the similarity between documents. The design was tested with two information retrieval tasks. User behaviour, performance and attitude were recorded as well as usability problems. The system had few usability problems and users liked the visualizations, but recall performance was poor. The reasons for poor/good performance were investigated by examining user behaviour and search strategies. Better searchers used the visualizations more effectively and spent longer on the task, whereas poorer performances were attributable to poor motivation, difficulty in assessing article relevance and poor use of system visualizations. The bullseye browser display appeared to encourage limited evaluation of article relevance on titles, leading to poor performance. The bullseye display metaphor for article relevance was understood by users; however, they were confused by the concept of similarity searching expressed as visual clusters. The conclusions from the study are that while visual user interfaces for information searching might seem to be usable, they may not actually improve performance. Training and advisor facilities for effective search strategies need to be incorporated to enhance the effectiveness of visual user interfaces for information retrieval.
‘When operating a cafeteria, sales come before nutrition’ – finding barriers and facilitators to serving reduced-sodium meals in worksite cafeterias

Abstract Objective The present study was conducted to examine barriers to and facilitators of serving reduced-sodium meals (RSM) in worksite cafeterias. Design We conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in food catering companies. Setting Food catering companies at various customer sites in South Korea. Subjects A total of nineteen interviews with twenty-five participants from ten catering companies were conducted. Sixteen on-site dietitians and nine managers from the catering companies’ headquarters participated in the interviews. Results Four main themes emerged from the interviews. First, key stakeholders’ psychosocial characteristics (perception, intention and knowledge) are important in serving RSM in worksite cafeterias. Second, skills and techniques related to measuring sodium content and preparing RSM were emphasized by the interviewees. Third, the lack of various delicious low-sodium menus is a barrier to serving RSM. Lastly, a number of environmental factors were addressed, which include social support for reduced-sodium diets (a facilitator) and pressure to maintain profit margins (a barrier), that contribute to serving meals with less salt. Based on these factors, various recommendations for future sodium reduction policies and programmes were suggested. Conclusions It is important to implement population-wide sodium reduction as a means of preventing CVD and stroke. The study provided important facilitators of and barriers to serving RSM in worksite cafeterias, which could be helpful in developing environmental interventions that promote low-sodium diets.
Optimal management of hypertension in elderly patients

Hypertension is a common and important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney diseases. The prevalence of hypertension, particularly isolated systolic hypertension, increases with advancing age, and this is partly due to the age-related changes in the arterial tree, leading to an increase in arterial stiffness. Therapeutic lifestyle changes, such as reduced dietary sodium intake, weight loss, regular aerobic activity, and moderation of alcohol consumption, have been shown to benefit elderly patients with hypertension. Lowering blood pressure (BP) using pharmacological agents reduces the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, with no difference in risk reduction in elderly patients compared to younger hypertensives. Guidelines recommend a BP goal of <140/90 in hypertensive patients regardless of age and <130/80 in patients with concomitant diabetes or kidney disease, and lowering the BP further has not been shown to confer any additional benefit. Moreover, the choice of antihypertensive does not seem to be as important as the degree of BP lowering. Special considerations in the treatment of elderly hypertensive patients include cognitive impairment, dementia, orthostatic hypotension, and polypharmacy.
Seasonal Variation of Radio Refractivity of Some Selected Stations in Northern Nigeria

The seasonal variation of radio refractivity of some selected stations (Abuja, Lafia, Bauchi, Kaduna, Maiduguri, and Sokoto) in Northern Nigeria was analysed using surface meteorological data sourced from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency for five years (2007-2011). From the analysed result, seasonal variation of radio refractivity was observed with higher refractivity during the wet season. The maximum refractivity during the study period was about 385 N-unit recorded in Lafia during the month of August and the minimum was about 282 N-unit recorded in Maiduguri during the month of March. The mean field strength recorded was found to be between 19 dB and 3 dB for the study stations. This implies that the output of the receiving antenna in the region may be subjected to variations of not less than 3 dB on a year and can be as high as 19 dB.
Mechanism of Chaperone Function in Small Heat Shock Proteins

Mammalian small heat shock proteins (sHSP) form polydisperse and dynamic oligomers that undergo equilibrium subunit exchange. Current models of their chaperone activity hypothesize that recognition and binding of protein non-native states involve changes in the oligomeric state. The equivalent thermodynamic representation is a set of three coupled equilibria that includes the sHSP oligomeric equilibrium, the substrate folding equilibrium, and the equilibrium binding between the sHSP and the substrate non-native states. To test this hypothesis and define the binding-competent oligomeric state of human Hsp27, we have perturbed the two former equilibria and quantitatively determined the consequences on binding. The substrate is a set of T4 lysozyme (T4L) mutants that bind under conditions that favor the folded state over the unfolded state by 102–104-fold. The concentration-dependent oligomer equilibrium of Hsp27 was perturbed by mutations that alter the relative stability of two major oligomeric states including phosphorylation-mimicking mutations that result in the dissociation to a small multimer over a wide range of concentrations. Correlation of binding isotherms with size exclusion chromatography analysis of the Hsp27 oligomer equilibrium demonstrates that the multimer is the binding-competent state. Binding occurs through two modes, each characterized by different affinity and number of binding sites, and results in T4L·Hsp27 complexes of different hydrodynamic properties. Mutants of the Hsp27 phosphorylation mimic that reverse the reduction in oligomer size also reduce the extent of T4L binding. Taken together, these results suggest a central role for the oligomeric equilibrium in regulating the chaperone activity of sHSP. The mutants identify sequence features important for modulating this equilibrium.