Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polyketide genes in the marine sponge Plakortis simplex: a new group of mono-modular type I polyketide synthases from sponge symbionts

Summary Sponge symbionts are a largely unexplored source of new and unusual metabolic pathways. Insights into the distribution and function of metabolic genes of sponge symbionts are crucial to dissect and exploit their biotechnological potential. Screening of the metagenome of the marine sponge Plakortis simplex led to the discovery of the swf family, a new group of mono-modular type I polyketide synthase/fatty acid synthase (PKS/FAS) specifically associated with sponge symbionts. Two different examples of the swf cluster were present in the metagenome of P. simplex. A third example of the cluster is present in the previously sequenced genome of a poribacterium from the sponge Aplysina aerophoba but was formerly considered orthologous to the wcb/rkp cluster. The swf cluster was also found in six additional species of sponges. Therefore, the swf cluster represents the second group of mono-modular PKS, after the supA family, to be widespread in marine sponges. The putative swf operon consists of swfA (type I PKS/FAS), swfB (reductase and sulphotransferase domains) and swfC (radical S-adenosylmethionine, or radical SAM). Activation of the acyl carrier protein (ACP) domain of the SwfA protein to its holo-form by co-expression with Svp is the first functional proof of swf type genes in marine sponges. However, the precise biosynthetic role of the swf clusters remains unknown.
ON THE EXISTENCE OF PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS BETWEEN SETS OF QUANTUM STATES

Let A={ρ1,…,ρn} be a given set of quantum states. We consider the problem of finding necessary and sufficient conditions on another set B={σ1,…,σn} that guarantee the existence of a physical transformation taking ρi to σi for all i. Uhlmann has given an elegant such condition when both sets comprise pure states. We give a simple proof of this condition and develop some consequences. Then we consider multi-probabilistic transformations between sets of pure states which leads to conditions for the problem of transformability between A and B when one set is pure and the other is arbitrary.
The Age Factor in the Foreign Language Class: What Do Learners Think?

The present paper analyzes beliefs about the age factor of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different starting ages (early vs. late starters), in different grades (in Year 7 at the beginning and in Year 12 at the end of secondary school), and with different levels of EFL proficiency (high achievers vs. low achievers). The sample for the study was drawn from a larger sample of 200 secondary school students who were part of a longitudinal study, undertaken in Switzerland between 2008 and 2015. From this sample we selected 10 early starting high-achievers, 10 early starting low-achievers, 10 late starting high-achievers, and 10 late starting low-achievers. A qualitative analysis of language experience essays written at the beginning and at the end of secondary school revealed that learners with different starting ages, in different grades, and with different levels of proficiency displayed different beliefs about the age factor. The overall lack of age effect on FL achievement found in our previous studies may be explicable in terms of a number of affective factors (e.g. disengagement of the early starters due to language practices of the classroom) and contextual factors (e.g. transition from English in primary to English in secondary).
The strong transformation of spiral galaxies infalling into massive clusters at z≈ 0.2

We describe two peculiar galaxies falling into the massive galaxy clusters Abell 1689 (Z ≈ 0.18) and Abell 2667 (Z ≈0.23), respectively. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images show extraordinary trails composed of bright blue knots (-16.5 < M < -11.5 mag) and stellar streams associated with each of these systems. Combining optical, near- and mid-infrared and radio observations we prove that while both galaxies show similar extended trails of star-forming knots, their recent star formation histories are different. One (≈L*) is experiencing a strong burst of star formation, appearing as a rare example of a luminous infrared cluster galaxy. In comparison, the other (≈0.1L*) has recently ceased its star formation activity. Our model suggests that the morphologies and star formation in these galaxies have been influenced by the combined action of tidal interaction (likely with the cluster potential) and of ram pressure with the intracluster medium (ICM). These results can be used to gain more insights to the origin of SOs, dwarf and ultracompact dwarf (UCD) cluster galaxies.
1 ERP Customisation, User Satisfaction and Operational Performance of Organisations: Investigating the Links

There is anecdotal evidence that standards enforced by ERP systems are often in conflict with user demands. With lesser customization, ERP implementation projects are more likley to finish on time and budget; however, customization makes users happy. Also, in customised ERP, organisations run the risk of losing out on the benfit of best-processes factored in ERP packages. Organizations are therefore faced with a dilemma of whether to customize the ERP package for user satisfaction and acceptance or re-engineering existing business processes to match ERP enforced standards to achieve benefits of best-processes and improve organizational performance. In this resesearch we investigate this issue. Our findings indicate that the level of ERP customization has significant moderating influence on the relationship between user satisfaction and operational performance in organizations. Our findings also indicate that the level of user satisfaction in customized ERP implementations is high but the high satisfaction does not translate to operational performance because of the negative moderating effect of ERP customization. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Two Efficient Implementation Forms of Unscented Kalman Filter

Two efficient implementation forms of unscented Kalman filter are described in this paper. They respectively utilize Cholesky factors and modified Cholesky factors to update state covariance, which make them have good numerical stability. Through computational complexity analysis, it is shown that the implementation using Cholesky factors is slower than the standard implementation. Also is shown that in some cases the form using modified Cholesky factors is faster than the standard unscented Kalman filter.
Ketamine Influences CLOCK:BMAL1 Function Leading to Altered Circadian Gene Expression

Major mood disorders have been linked to abnormalities in circadian rhythms, leading to disturbances in sleep, mood, temperature, and hormonal levels. We provide evidence that ketamine, a drug with rapid antidepressant effects, influences the function of the circadian molecular machinery. Ketamine modulates CLOCK:BMAL1-mediated transcriptional activation when these regulators are ectopically expressed in NG108-15 neuronal cells. Inhibition occurs in a dose-dependent manner and is attenuated after treatment with the GSK3β antagonist SB21673. We analyzed the effect of ketamine on circadian gene expression and observed a dose-dependent reduction in the amplitude of circadian transcription of the Bmal1, Per2, and Cry1 genes. Finally, chromatin-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that ketamine altered the recruitment of the CLOCK:BMAL1 complex on circadian promoters in a time-dependent manner. Our results reveal a yet unsuspected molecular mode of action of ketamine and thereby may suggest possible pharmacological antidepressant strategies.
Measuring interactivity at an interactive public information display

Public Information Displays (PIDs) have only recently begun to support user interaction. Traditionally, such displays have been static and non-interactive, and past research has shown that users of such displays (both non-interactive and interactive) are often oblivious to them; a term commonly known as 'display blindness'. In this paper, we describe the results from a field study that was conducted on a gesture-based PID, to observe interactivity with the display over a number of different experiment conditions. Over a period of 120 days, a total of 2,468 people approached the display. Results show that 71% proceeded to face the display, and from this, 62% of these people proceeded to interact with the display, with average interaction sessions lasting 28 seconds. Results from this study provide valuable insight into interaction sessions with interactive PIDs, as well as an essential baseline for future studies into PID interactivity.
Striatal Functional Alteration in Adolescents Characterized by Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition

The temperamental style of behavioral inhibition has been characterized by exaggerated behavioral and neural responses to cues signaling threat. Virtually no work, however, has addressed whether behavioral inhibition may also confer heightened brain activation in response to positively valenced incentives. We used event-related functional MRI (fMRI) and a monetary incentive delay task to examine whether the neural response to incentives is also greater in adolescents characterized as behaviorally inhibited early in life compared with those characterized as non-inhibited. Whereas task performance did not differ between groups, fMRI revealed greater striatal activation to incentives in behaviorally inhibited adolescents than in non-inhibited adolescents. This was regardless of whether the incentive was an anticipated gain or loss. Alteration in neural systems underlying behavior modulated by both negative and positive contingencies may represent a correlate of behavioral inhibition that also underlies vulnerability to various forms of developmental psychopathology.
Social Support Provision And Cultural Values In Indonesia And Britain

Previous cross-cultural research into social support has attributed national variations in social support to assumed cultural values but has rarely measured these values at an individual level. This study investigates the relationship between support offered and individualism among 186 government workers in Indonesia and the United Kingdom. Indonesian respondents were more willing to offer support to strangers than their British counterparts, but individualism was a significant predictor of (lesser) support provision only in Britain. In addition, female respondents in Britain, and older respondents in Indonesia, offered higher levels of support. These findings underline the difficulties for individual-level measures of culture in accounting for cultural-level differences and are discussed in the light of further emic and etic factors likely to be significant for an understanding of support provision in these two cultures.
Horizontal Liver Cleft: A Rare Anatomic Variant

Patient: Female, 74 Final Diagnosis: Horizontal liver cleft Symptoms: — Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Surgery Objective: Congenital defects/diseases Background: Improvements in hepatobiliary surgical techniques, with increased usage of segmental and subsegmental re-section, make accurate preoperative radiological assessment delineation of the liver segments ever more crucial. Conventionally, this is done by drawing imaginary straight planes along the portal and hepatic veins. We herein report a rare case of a horizontal cleft between the superior and inferior liver segments seen on CT. Case Report: A 74-year-old female patient with a known medical history of ovarian cancer with peritoneal metastasis and retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy was referred to our department for CT to assess disease response after treatment. On contrast-enhanced CT, apart from the ovarian cancer, the liver had a smooth, well-defined horizontally orientated cleft that broadly divided the organ into 2 halves. The cleft contained the right and left main portal veins, and consequently had a curved down-sloping configuration accommodating the curved course of these veins. This liver cleft was present from an earlier CT study performed 3 years ago, and there was no history of preceding liver surgery. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the anomaly of a horizontal liver cleft, which may be attributed to early cessation of the embryological formation of the liver. This liver cleft also illustrates the difficulties in liver segmentation using Couinaud’s classification.
On the Existence of Two-Dimensional, Localized, Rotating, Self-Similar Vortical Structures

We prove that a Gaussian monopole, also known as the Lamb-Oseen vortex, is the only localized, rotating, self-similar solution to the two-dimensional, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations where level sets of vorticity and corotating streamfunction coincide. Our definition of self-similarity is restricted to the natural linear combination of space, time, and viscous diffusion. We arrive at this conclusion by analytically determining the azimuthal Fourier modes for all possible solutions to this problem and then proving that the amplitude of all but the first (axisymmetric) is zero. Since coherent vortex multipoles are observed to be in a state in which lines of vorticity and corotating streamfunction correspond, this casts doubt on the existence of any localized, rotating, self-similar asymptotic structure other than the monopole.
Personal and Classroom Achievement Goals: Their Structures and Relationships

This study examines the factor structures of Personal and Classroom Achievement Goals and the relationships between them. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to examine data from a sample of 3,544 Italian 10th-grade students (184 classrooms) who completed the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS). Findings about the factor structure of personal goals were consistent with studies in other cultural contexts. The scales showed measurement invariance both across gender and across various immigrant backgrounds. Boys showed lower levels of mastery and higher levels of performance-approach than girls. Immigrant students scored higher than the native students on all Performance scales. At the group level, a measurement model including mastery and performance-approach goal structures showed good fit indices. In classrooms more oriented toward mastery, students’ personal goals tend to be in the same direction. Classroom performance-approach goal structures were related to performance-avoidance personal orientations but not to performance-approach personal orientations.
Reference Values and Age and Sex Differences in Physical Performance Measures for Community-Dwelling Older Japanese: A Pooled Analysis of Six Cohort Studies

Objectives To determine age- and sex-specific reference values for six physical performance measures, i.e. hand-grip strength, one-legged stance, and gait speed and step length at both usual and maximum paces, and to investigate age and sex differences in these measures among community-dwelling older Japanese adults. Methods We conducted a pooled analysis of data from six cohort studies collected between 2002 and 2011 as part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology-Longitudinal Interdisciplinary Study on Aging. The pooled analysis included cross-sectional data from 4683 nondisabled, community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older (2168 men, 2515 women; mean age: 74.0 years in men and 73.9 years in women). Results Unweighted simple mean (standard deviation) hand-grip strength, one-legged stance, usual gait speed, usual gait step length, maximum gait speed, and maximum gait step length were 31.7 (6.7) kg, 39.3 (23.0) s, 1.29 (0.25) m/s, 67.7 (10.0) cm, 1.94 (0.38) m/s, and 82.3 (11.6) cm, respectively, in men and 20.4 (5.0) kg, 36.8 (23.4) s, 1.25 (0.27) m/s, 60.8 (10.0) cm, 1.73 (0.36) m/s, and 69.7 (10.8) cm, respectively, in women. All physical performance measures showed significant decreasing trends with advancing age in both sexes (all P<0.001 for trend). We also constructed age- and sex-specific appraisal standards according to quintiles. With increasing age, the sex difference in hand-grip strength decreased significantly (P<0.001 for age and sex interaction). In contrast, sex differences significantly increased in all other measures (all P<0.05 for interactions) except step length at maximum pace. Conclusion Our pooled analysis yielded inclusive age- and sex-specific reference values and appraisal standards for major physical performance measures in nondisabled, community-dwelling, older Japanese adults. The characteristics of age-related decline in physical performance measures differed between sexes.
Epstein-Barr Virus-Associated Acute Liver Failure Present in a 67-Year-Old Immunocompetent Female

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare illness with a high mortality rate. The only favorable management is emergent liver transplantation. About 13% of ALF cases have no clear etiology. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated ALF accounts for less than 1% of all ALF cases, and is seen mostly in adults younger than 40 years. There are only a few cases of EBV-associated ALF in elderly immunocompromised adults. We report a case of ALF in an immunocompetent 67-year-old woman caused by EBV infection that was treated by orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The diagnosis of EBV-associated ALF was established by EBV-DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and EBV-encoded RNA (EBER-RNA) in situ hybridization (EBER-RISH). The patient is currently doing well 6 months after transplantation without any evidence of clinical EBV infection. This case illustrates the importance of early recognition and diagnosis of EBV-associated ALF by detection of EBV from liver biopsy, especially when patients are immunocompetent and other causes are excluded. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of EBV-associated ALF present in an immunocompetent elderly female.
Dendrite arborization requires the dynein cofactor NudE

ABSTRACT The microtubule-based molecular motor dynein is essential for proper neuronal morphogenesis. Dynein activity is regulated by cofactors, and the role(s) of these cofactors in shaping neuronal structure are still being elucidated. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we reveal that the loss of the dynein cofactor NudE results in abnormal dendrite arborization. Our data show that NudE associates with Golgi outposts, which mediate dendrite branching, suggesting that NudE normally influences dendrite patterning by regulating Golgi outpost transport. Neurons lacking NudE also have increased microtubule dynamics, reflecting a change in microtubule stability that is likely to also contribute to abnormal dendrite growth and branching. These defects in dendritogenesis are rescued by elevating levels of Lis1, another dynein cofactor that interacts with NudE as part of a tripartite complex. Our data further show that the NudE C-terminus is dispensable for dendrite morphogenesis and is likely to modulate NudE activity. We propose that a key function of NudE is to enhance an interaction between Lis1 and dynein that is crucial for motor activity and dendrite architecture.
Oxidant-induced apoptosis in human retinal pigment epithelial cells: dependence on extracellular redox state.

PURPOSE To test whether variation in extracellular cysteine (Cys) redox potential (E(h)) over the physiologic range occurring in human plasma affects oxidant-induced apoptosis in cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells. METHODS The hRPE cells were incubated in culture medium with E(h) established over the range of -16 mV (most oxidized) to -158 mV (most reduced) by adding different concentrations of Cys and cystine (CySS) with constant total Cys equivalents. Apoptosis was induced with tert-butylhydroperoxide (tBH). RESULTS The hRPE cells were sensitized to tBH-induced apoptosis in the more oxidized extracellular conditions (E(h) > -55 mV) compared with the reduced conditions (E(h) < -89 mV). Loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Deltapsi(m)), release of cytochrome c, and activation of caspase 3 after tBH treatments all increased under the more oxidized conditions. However, the extracellular redox state did not affect expression of Fas or FasL in hRPE cells. CONCLUSIONS The hRPE cells that are exposed to a more oxidized extracellular redox environment have increased susceptibility to oxidant-induced apoptosis through the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway, which could contribute to an age-related decline in cell populations in the retina and thereby provide a potential mechanism for the degenerative changes that are associated with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).
Efficient Integer DCT Architectures for HEVC

In this paper, we present High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) inverse transform for residual coding uses 2-D 4x4 to 32x32 transforms with higher precision as compared to H.264/AVC's 4x4 and 8x8 transforms resulting in an increased hardware complexity. In this paper, an energy and area efficient VLSI architecture of an HEVC-compliant inverse transform and de-quantization engine is presented. We implement a pipelining scheme to process all transform sizes at a minimum throughput of 2 pixel/cycle with zero-column skipping for improved throughput. We use data gating in the 1-D Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform engine to improve energy-efficiency for smaller transform sizes. A high-density SRAM-based transpose memory is used for an area-efficient design. This design supports decoding of 4K Ultra-HD (3840x2160) video at 30 frame/sec. The inverse transform engine takes 98.1 k gate logic, 16.4 Kbit SRAM and 10.82 pJ/pixel while the de-quantization engine takes 27.7 k gate logic, 8.2 Kbit SRAM and 1.10 pJ/pixel in 40 nm CMOS technology. Although larger transforms require more computation per coefficient, they typically contain a smaller proportion of non-zero coefficients. Due to this trade-off, larger transforms can be more energy-efficient. The proposed architecture is found to support ultrahigh definition 7680×4320 at 60 frames/s video, which is one of the applications of HEVC.
The Behavior of MANET Routing Protocols in Realistic Environments

This paper presents an analysis of MANET routing protocols' behavior in realistic channel fading scenarios. The motivation of this study was due to our previous testbed experimentations where we found that AODV and DSDV's performance did not match simulation results, primarily due to the use of a simple radio propagation model that did not take into account transient links caused by small-scale fading. Henceforth, we extended the ns-2 simulator with a realistic radio propagation model, that incorporated Rayleigh fading, to gain insights into the impact of transient links on AODV, DSR, and DSDVs behaviour. Our simulation studies explain each protocol's key behavior that leads to the following conclusions: (1) routing through stable routes is important, (2) hop count is the root cause of poor performance, (3) the 2-ray ground radio propagation model is inappropriate for simulating ad-hoc protocols in indoor environments, and (4) local recovery is important