Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of pOENI-1 and Related Plasmids in Oenococcus oeni Strains Performing the Malolactic Fermentation in Wine

Plasmids in lactic acid bacteria occasionally confer adaptive advantages improving the growth and behaviour of their host cells. They are often associated to starter cultures used in the food industry and could be a signature of their superiority. Oenococcus oeni is the main lactic acid bacteria species encountered in wine. It performs the malolactic fermentation that occurs in most wines after alcoholic fermentation and contributes to their quality and stability. Industrial O. oeni starters may be used to better control malolactic fermentation. Starters are selected empirically by virtue of their fermentation kinetics and capacity to survive in wine. This study was initiated with the aim to determine whether O. oeni contains plasmids of technological interest. Screening of 11 starters and 33 laboratory strains revealed two closely related plasmids, named pOENI-1 (18.3-kb) and pOENI-1v2 (21.9-kb). Sequence analyses indicate that they use the theta mode of replication, carry genes of maintenance and replication and two genes possibly involved in wine adaptation encoding a predicted sulphite exporter (tauE) and a NADH:flavin oxidoreductase of the old yellow enzyme family (oye). Interestingly, pOENI-1 and pOENI-1v2 were detected only in four strains, but this included three industrial starters. PCR screenings also revealed that tauE is present in six of the 11 starters, being probably inserted in the chromosome of some strains. Microvinification assays performed using strains with and without plasmids did not disclose significant differences of survival in wine or fermentation kinetics. However, analyses of 95 wines at different phases of winemaking showed that strains carrying the plasmids or the genes tauE and oye were predominant during spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Taken together, the results revealed a family of related plasmids associated with industrial starters and indigenous strains performing spontaneous malolactic fermentation that possibly contribute to the technological performance of strains in wine.
Distribution of Eigenvalues in Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Ten invariant multivariate testing problems involving the real, complex, or quaternion structure of covariance matrices are considered. In each problem the the maximal invariant statistic and its distribution are described, as well as the maximum likelihood estimators and likelihood ratio test statistics. These results are obtained by means of a new, unified method based on invariance arguments. of ca Statis cs Andersson s was done ile Washington.
The Factors Influencing Technical College Students to Choose English-Learning Websites

The aim of the study is to examine the factors that influence technical college students to choose English-learning websites. The subjects were 165 students from a technical college in Southern Taiwan. The instrument was a questionnaire with three factors about choosing English-learning websites. One hundred sixty-five subjects completed a 10-minute questionnaire about English-learning websites in March 2017. The researchers collected the data from the questionnaire and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results revealed that most subjects stated that they liked to learn English, but went online to learn English less than one hour per week, and most subjects agreed that learning English online was helpful and English was important for their work and academy. The results also showed that most subjects believed English was related to a higher salary and future promotions, and they planned to improve their English. In addition, the results indicated that the subjects paid more attention to the practicality and convenience of an English-learning website than to the enjoyment of it. In this paper, the researchers draw conclusions and discuss the teaching and research implications for the future.
Mobile communication and social capital: an analysis of geographically differentiated usage patterns

Drawing from a representative sample of adults in the USA, this study explored the links between mobile communication and select indicators of social capital, while also accounting for usage patterns regarding the proximity of mobile contact. Overall, the findings show that mobile phone use intersects with proximity in distinctive ways that are related to spending leisure time with others in a face-to-face context and being active in organized groups and clubs. For individuals with primarily local usage patterns, both voice calling and text messaging were positively associated with social leisure activity. For those who primarily used the mobile phone to contact others from a distance, text messaging was positively related to social leisure activity, and for those whose mobile contacts were balanced between local and distant, voice calling was positively associated with active membership in organizations. Interpretation of these findings and directions for future research are offered in the discussion.
Modification of Male Courtship Motivation by Olfactory Habituation via the GABAA Receptor in Drosophila melanogaster

A male-specific component, 11-cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) works as an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone in Drosophila melanogaster. The presence of cVA on a male suppresses the courtship motivation of other males and contributes to suppression of male-male homosexual courtship, while the absence of cVA on a female stimulates the sexual motivation of nearby males and enhances the male-female interaction. However, little is known how a male distinguishes the presence or absence of cVA on a target fly from either self-produced cVA or secondhand cVA from other males in the vicinity. In this study, we demonstrate that male flies have keen sensitivity to cVA; therefore, the presence of another male in the area reduces courtship toward a female. This reduced level of sexual motivation, however, could be overcome by pretest odor exposure via olfactory habituation to cVA. Real-time imaging of cVA-responsive sensory neurons using the neural activity sensor revealed that prolonged exposure to cVA decreased the levels of cVA responses in the primary olfactory center. Pharmacological and genetic screening revealed that signal transduction via GABAA receptors contributed to this olfactory habituation. We also found that the habituation experience increased the copulation success of wild-type males in a group. In contrast, transgenic males, in which GABA input in a small subset of local neurons was blocked by RNAi, failed to acquire the sexual advantage conferred by habituation. Thus, we illustrate a novel phenomenon in which olfactory habituation positively affects sexual capability in a competitive environment.
Generalized Key Delegation for Wildcarded Identity-Based and Inner-Product Encryption

Inspired by the fact that many e-mail addresses correspond to groups of users, Abdalla introduced the notion of identity-based encryption with wildcards (WIBE), which allows a sender to simultaneously encrypt messages to a group of users matching a certain pattern, defined as a sequence of identity strings and wildcards. This notion was later generalized by Abdalla, Kiltz, and Neven, who considered more general delegation patterns during the key derivation process. Despite its many applications, current constructions have two significant limitations: 1) they are only known to be fully secure when the maximum hierarchy depth is a constant; and 2) they do not hide the pattern associated with the ciphertext. To overcome these, this paper offers two new constructions. First, we show how to convert a WIBE scheme of Abdalla into a (nonanonymous) WIBE scheme with generalized key delegation (WW-IBE) that is fully secure even for polynomially many levels. Then, to achieve anonymity, we initially consider hierarchical predicate encryption (HPE) schemes with more generalized forms of key delegation and use them to construct an anonymous WW-IBE scheme. Finally, to instantiate the former, we modify the HPE scheme of Lewko to allow for more general key delegation patterns. Our proofs are in the standard model and use existing complexity assumptions.
Experiences with Identifying Aspects in Smalltalk Using ’ Unique Methods

Now that Aspect-Oriented Software Development has matured, the techniques developed in this field may be used to cleanly modularize the crosscutting concerns in legacy applications. Due to the complexity and size of these applications it is important that the identification of crosscutting concerns and the transformation into aspects is automated as much as possible. In this paper we present a simple heuristic named Unique Methods which can be used to detect crosscutting concerns in an application. We demonstrate the use of this technique on the code of an entire VisualWorks Smalltalk image and discuss the benefits and disadvantages of our approach.
A Predictive Model for Dynamic Microarchitectural Adaptivity Control

Adaptive micro architectures are a promising solution for designing high-performance, power-efficient microprocessors. They offer the ability to tailor computational resources to the specific requirements of different programs or program phases. They have the potential to adapt the hardware cost-effectively at runtime to any application's needs. However, one of the key challenges is how to dynamically determine the best architecture configuration at any given time, for any new workload. This paper proposes a novel control mechanism based on a predictive model for micro architectural adaptivity control. This model is able to efficiently control adaptivity by monitoring the behaviour of an application's different phases at runtime. We show that using this model on SPEC 2000, we double the energy/performance efficiency of the processor when compared to the best static configuration tuned for the whole benchmark suite. This represents 74\% of the improvement available if we knew the best micro architecture for each program phase ahead of time. In addition, we show that the overheads associated with the implementation of our scheme have a negligible impact on performance and power.
THE AVERAGED PERIODOGRAM FOR NONSTATIONARY VECTOR STOCHASTIC PROCESSES

Frequency domain statistics are studied in the presence of fractional deterministic and stochastic trends. It is shown how the behaviour of the sample variance-covariance matrix of nonstationary processes can be dominated by components corresponding to a possibly degenerating band around zero frequency. This property is used to establish the limiting distribution of the averaged periodogram matrix, of memory estimates for nonstationary series, and for frequency domain regression estimates under nonstandard conditions.
The Radio-Loud Fraction of Quasars is a Strong Function of Redshift and Optical Luminosity

Using a sample of optically selected quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we have determined the radio-loud fraction (RLF) of quasars as a function of redshift and optical luminosity. The sample contains more than 30,000 objects and spans a redshift range of 0 < z ≤ 5 and a luminosity range of -30 ≤ Mi < -22. We use both the radio-to-optical flux ratio (R parameter) and the radio luminosity to define radio-loud quasars. After breaking the correlation between redshift and luminosity due to the flux-limited nature of the sample, we find that the RLF of quasars decreases with increasing redshift and decreasing luminosity. The relation can be described in the form of log [RLF/(1 − RLF)] = b0 + bz log(1 + z) + bM(M2500 + 26), where M2500 is the absolute magnitude at rest-frame 2500 Å, and bz, bM < 0. When using R > 10 to define radio-loud quasars, we find that b0 = -0.132 ± 0.116, bz = -2.052 ± 0.261, and bM = -0.183 ± 0.025. The RLF at z = 0.5 declines from 24.3% to 5.6% as luminosity decreases from M2500 = -26 to -22, and the RLF at M2500 = -26 declines from 24.3% to 4.1% as redshift increases from 0.5 to 3, suggesting that the RLF is a strong function of both redshift and luminosity. We also examine the impact of flux-related selection effects on the RLF determination using a series of tests and find that the dependence of the RLF on redshift and luminosity is highly likely to be physical, and that the selection effects we considered are not responsible for the dependence.
Organic Cation Transporter OCTs (SLC22) and MATEs (SLC47) in the Human Kidney

In the kidney, human organic cation transporters (OCTs) and multidrug and toxin extrusion proteins (MATEs) are the major transporters for the secretion of cationic drugs into the urine. In the human kidney, OCT2 mediates the uptake of drugs from the blood at the basolateral membrane of tubular epithelial cells, and MATE1 and MATE2-K secrete drugs from cells into the lumen of proximal tubules. However, the expression of these transporters depends on the species of the animal. In the rodent kidney, OCT1 and OCT2 are expressed at the basolateral membrane, and MATE1 localizes at the brush-border membrane. Together, these transporters recognize various compounds and have overlapping, but somewhat different, substrate specificities. OCTs and MATEs can transport important drugs, such as metformin and cisplatin. Therefore, functional variation in OCTs and MATEs, including genetic polymorphisms or inter-individual variation, may seriously affect the pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics of cationic drugs. In this review, we summarize the recent findings and clinical importance of these transporters.
Executive Authority, the Personal Vote, and Budget Discipline in Latin American and Caribbean Countries

Recent scholarship on the impact of fiscal institutions on budgeting outcomes in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries indicates that political institutions impact the level of budget discipline. BuiIding upon this previous research, we argue that the principle problem that must be addressed to insure strong fiscal discipline is the common pool resource (CPR) problem. The source of the problem, as well as its solution, differ in the government and in the legislature. At the cabinet level, the CPR problem arises because ministers consider the spending and tax implications of decisions on their ministries (only) instead of on the general population. As Hallerberg and von Hagen (1999) indicate, the appropriate solution at the cabinet level depends upon the coalition structure of the government. Given that all LAC countries have either presidential or oneparty parliamentary systems, a strong central player like the finance minister can reduce the CPR problem at the cabinet level. A similar strengthening of the executive vis-a-vis the legislature, in contrast, does not necessarily lead to tighter fiscal discipline. The level of the CPR problem in the legislature depends upon the type of electoral system. If states have open list proportional representation systems, then increases in district magnitude increase the problem, while under closed lists increases in district magnitude decrease the problem. Using a data set of LAC countries for the period 1988-97 and following Carey and Shugart (1995), we create an index for the incentives for the personal vote. We find that executive power in the budget process is most effective in reducing budget deficits when the personal vote is high in the legislature, while strengthening the president (or prime minister) in countries where the personal vote is low in the legislature has no statistically significant effect. This finding has practical implications for the design of fiscal institutions in LAC countries—granting the executive a privileged position vis-a-vis the legislature has beneficial effects on the budget balance only when the CPR problem in the legislature is large. Moreover, an alternative institutional change is to reform a country’s electoral system. The second option may be more feasible in countries where legislators are unlikely to give the president more power, or where dictatorial pasts make populations wary of granting the executive too much authority on any policy area.
Detection of IgM Antibrucella Antibody in the Absence of IgGs: A Challenge for the Clinical Interpretation of Brucella Serology

The use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of IgG and IgM antibodies antibrucella has become widespread in the diagnosis of human brucellosis. IgM anti-Brucella antibodies are indicative of acute infection. Between 2009–2013, 5307 patients were evaluated for serologic diagnosis at the Microbiology Laboratory of the Albacete General Hospital. A ELISA IgM-positive, IgG-negative anti-Brucella antibody serology pattern was detected in 17 of those patients. Epidemiology data, symptoms, laboratory data, treatment and outcome from these patients were reviewed. Sixteen patients presented with musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and/or fever and 1 was asymptomatic. Five patients received treatment with doxycycline combined with rifampin, gentamycin or streptomycin during 6–12 weeks, with no improvement. None of the 17 patients were finally diagnosed with brucellosis. Our results indicate that anti-Brucella IgM positive serology, per se, is not enough to diagnose acute brucellosis and other methods should be used for confirmation. Brucella serology data should be interpreted taking into account the patient's clinical history and epidemiological context.
Dynamic Price Adjustment Under Imperfect Competition

We study dynamic price adjustment under imperfect competition when consumers have non-time-separable preferences. In our model an intertemporal link arises in the consumers' maximization problems because current price and firms must take this into account when making their decisions. The main result is that equilibrium prices follow a dynamic stochastic process in which the current price depends on past prices and on random disturbances.
Strategic Disclosure Model for Insider ’ s Financial Forecast Information

This study develops a theoretical model in which the voluntary disclosure of earnings forecast is a double-edged sword. Such disclosure may reduce the information asymmetry between investors and firms but simultaneously allows entrepreneurs create hype. Beginning from 2005 the disclosures of financial forecasts for Taiwanese public companies have not been mandatory, with firms being able to decide whether they wish to disclose such forecasts or not. This study devises a theoretical model for the disclosure decision, in which insider may manipulate information and investors can learn with bounded rationality. The analysis presented in this study demonstrates that a company may forgo earnings forecast disclosure. Considering forecast error costs in a multiperiod model, if the entrepreneur decides to voluntarily disclose financial forecasts, he should reduce the degree of manipulation. Additionally, the inferences of our model are examined based on forecasts issued by Taiwanese-listed firms. This study identifies a positive relationship between profit from insider trading and manipulation of earnings forecasts. Furthermore, the forecast error of voluntary disclosure may negatively impact firm value.
Raised BMI cut-off for overweight in Greenland Inuit – a review

Background Obesity is associated with increased morbidity and premature death. Obesity rates have increased worldwide and the WHO recommends monitoring. A steep rise in body mass index (BMI), a measure of adiposity, was detected in Greenland from 1963 to 1998. Interestingly, the BMI starting point was in the overweight range. This is not conceivable in a disease-free, physically active, pre-western hunter population. Objective This led us to reconsider the cut-off point for overweight among Inuit in Greenland. Design and findings We found 3 different approaches to defining the cut-off point of high BMI in Inuit. First, the contribution to the height by the torso compared to the legs is relatively high. This causes relatively more kilograms per centimetre of height that increases the BMI by approximately 10% compared to Caucasian whites. Second, defining the cut-off by the upper 90-percentile of BMI from height and weight in healthy young Inuit surveyed in 1963 estimated the cut-off point to be around 10% higher compared to Caucasians. Third, if similar LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides are assumed for a certain BMI in Caucasians, the corresponding BMI in Inuit in both Greenland and Canada is around 10% higher. However, genetic admixture of Greenland Inuit and Caucasian Danes will influence this difference and hamper a clear distinction with time. Conclusion Defining overweight according to the WHO cut-off of a BMI above 25 kg/m2 in Greenland Inuit may overestimate the number of individuals with elevated BMI.
Threshold Signature Scheme Resistible for Conspiracy Attack

Threshold signature is an important aspect of threshold cryptography, and represents almost the core of threshold cryptography research. Based on the threshold signature method, this work was made for resisting conspiracy attack by controlling the group signature issuance rights. The proposed method suffers a flaw for it requires establishing a secretary for signature issuance. By the way, the proposed strategy can be widely applied to various group signature crypto systems, in which the participant conspirators disable to forge the group signature
Carbohydrate Electrolyte Solutions Enhance Endurance Capacity in Active Females

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of supplementation with a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution (CES) in active females during a prolonged session of submaximal running to exhaustion. Eight healthy active females volunteered to perform a session of open-ended running to exhaustion at 70% of their maximal oxygen consumption on a treadmill during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle on two occasions. During each run, the subjects consumed either 3mL·kg−1 body mass of a 6% CES or a placebo drink (PL) every 20 min during exercise. The trials were administered in a randomized double-blind, cross-over design. During the run, the subjects ingested similar volumes of fluid in two trials (CES: 644 ± 75 mL vs. PL: 593 ± 66 mL, p > 0.05). The time to exhaustion was 16% longer during the CES trial (106.2 ± 9.4 min) than during the PL trial (91.6 ± 5.9 min) (p < 0.05). At 45 min during exercise, the plasma glucose concentration in the CES trial was higher than that in PL trial. No differences were observed in the plasma lactate level, respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate, perceived rate of exertion, sensation of thirst, or abdominal discomfort between the two trials (p > 0.05). The results of the present study confirm that CES supplementation improves the moderate intensity endurance capacity of active females during the follicular phases of the menstrual cycle. However, the exogenous oxidation of carbohydrate does not seem to explain the improved capacity after CES supplementation.
Wealth Elite Moralities: Wealthy Entrepreneurs’ Moral Boundaries

This article examines the moral boundary work of wealthy Finnish entrepreneurs belonging to the country’s top 0.1 per cent of earners. Through 28 semi-structured interviews, we show how these members of the wealth elite construct moral boundaries to legitimise their growing distance from other income groups in a Nordic welfare society. The super-rich entrepreneurs construct self-identities based on hard work, persistence and normality, draw moral boundaries between lazy and hard-working people and create moral distance between themselves and wage earners, the unemployed and public-sector workers. At the same time, these wealthy elite entrepreneurs challenge the moralities of Nordic welfare society. We thus posit that moral boundaries and boundary work should be explored as legitimising discourses embedded in the relations of economic and political power.