Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Characterization of Small Noncoding RNAs in Genome Sequences of the Edible Fungus Pleurotus ostreatus

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been identified in many fungi. However, no genome-scale identification of ncRNAs has been inventoried for basidiomycetes. In this research, we detected 254 small noncoding RNAs (sncRNAs) in a genome assembly of an isolate (CCEF00389) of Pleurotus ostreatus, which is a widely cultivated edible basidiomycetous fungus worldwide. The identified sncRNAs include snRNAs, snoRNAs, tRNAs, and miRNAs. SnRNA U1 was not found in CCEF00389 genome assembly and some other basidiomycetous genomes by BLASTn. This implies that if snRNA U1 of basidiomycetes exists, it has a sequence that varies significantly from other organisms. By analyzing the distribution of sncRNA loci, we found that snRNAs and most tRNAs (88.6%) were located in pseudo-UTR regions, while miRNAs are commonly found in introns. To analyze the evolutionary conservation of the sncRNAs in P. ostreatus, we aligned all 254 sncRNAs to the genome assemblies of some other Agaricomycotina fungi. The results suggest that most sncRNAs (77.56%) were highly conserved in P. ostreatus, and 20% were conserved in Agaricomycotina fungi. These findings indicate that most sncRNAs of P. ostreatus were not conserved across Agaricomycotina fungi.
Salinity Gradient of the Baltic Sea Limits the Reproduction and Population Expansion of the Newly Invaded Comb Jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi

The recent invasion of the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi into northern European waters is of major public and scientific concern. One of the key features making M. leidyi a successful invader is its high fecundity combined with fast growth rates. However, little is known about physiological limitations to its reproduction and consequent possible abiotic restrictions to its dispersal. To evaluate the invasion potential of M. leidyi into the brackish Baltic Sea we studied in situ egg production rates in different regions and at different salinities in the laboratory, representing the salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea. During October 2009 M. leidyi actively reproduced over large areas of the Baltic Sea. Egg production rates scaled with animal size but decreased significantly with decreasing salinity, both in the field (7–29) and in laboratory experiments (6–33). Temperature and zooplankton, i.e. food abundance, could not explain the observed differences. Reproduction rates at conditions representing the Kattegat, south western and central Baltic Sea, respectively, were 2.8 fold higher at the highest salinities (33 and 25) than at intermediate salinities (10 and 15) and 21 times higher compared from intermediate to the lowest salinity tested (6). Higher salinity areas such as the Kattegat, and to a lower extent the south western Baltic, seem to act as source regions for the M. leidyi population in the central Baltic Sea where a self-sustaining population, due to the low salinity, cannot be maintained.
Optical techniqueDPIV inmeasurements of granularmaterial flows , Part 1 of 3 — plane hoppers

The aim of this paper is to present the evolution of plug flow developing in three densely packed granular materials in the model of a hopper made of Plexiglas. For this purpose, the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) technique is applied to analyse the flow field of the granular material. When discharge starts, a plug flow zone in the flowing material expands upward. This zone changes its width reaching the upper surface of the material. The plug flow evolution as a function of time is described using DPIV. This technique yields the velocity profiles of flowing granular materials, velocity magnitude contours, vector fields, velocity distributions on certain levels in the model and traces of the selected particles. The results obtained for the evolution of the vertical velocity, height and width of the plug flow zone as a function of time, measured at the symmetry axis of the model for the amarantus seed are compared to the results obtained by Waters and Drescher. Measurements of the stagnant boundary as a function of time are compared to the results available in the literature. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Effect of mat pilates exercise on postural alignment and body composition of middle-aged women

[Purpose] This study attempted to examine whether Pilates is an effective exercise for improving the postural alignment and health of middle-aged women. [Subjects and Methods] The participants in this study were 36 middle-aged women (20 in the experimental group, 16 in the control group). The experimental group participated in Pilates exercise sessions three times a week for 12 weeks. Body alignment and composition measurements before and after applying the Pilates exercise program were performed with a body composition analyzer and a three-dimensional scanner. [Results] Postural alignment in the sagittal and horizontal planes was enhanced in the Pilates exercise group. Trunk alignment showed correlations with body fat and muscle mass. [Conclusion] The Pilates exercises are performed symmetrically and strengthen the deep muscles. Moreover, the results showed that muscle mass was correlated with trunk postural alignment and that the proper amount of muscle is critical in maintaining trunk postural alignment.
Determinants of self-service technology adoption

With the tremendous growth of self-service technologies (SSTs) in many industries, SSTs in the context of service provision are recognized as more effective and important technologies to minimize investment costs and maximizes service quality. By means of reviewing and integrating literature in several fields, the present paper attempted to provide an understanding of this relationship in terms of the links between SST characteristics (perceived risk, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness), consumer technology readiness, social pressures (coercive, normative, and mimetic), and SST adoption. Eight hypotheses from a conceptual model developed to predict and explain consumer intentions towards SST usage were tested through data collection from senior undergraduate and graduate students majoring business as respondents. Through structural equation modeling (SEM), findings indicated that SST characteristics, consumer technology readiness, social pressures were crucial determinants of SST adoption. Besides the empirical confirmation of the hypotheses given, finally, there were several practical implications for service marketers and future research directions for scholars. Key words: Self-service technologies (SSTs), self-service technologies characteristics, technology readiness, social pressures, self-service technologies adoption.
Corticospinal and reciprocal inhibition actions on human soleus motoneuron activity during standing and walking

Reciprocal Ia inhibition constitutes a key segmental neuronal pathway for coordination of antagonist muscles. In this study, we investigated the soleus H‐reflex and reciprocal inhibition exerted from flexor group Ia afferents on soleus motoneurons during standing and walking in 15 healthy subjects following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The effects of separate TMS or deep peroneal nerve (DPN) stimulation and the effects of combined (TMS + DPN) stimuli on the soleus H‐reflex were assessed during standing and at mid‐ and late stance phases of walking. Subthreshold TMS induced short‐latency facilitation on the soleus H‐reflex that was present during standing and at midstance but not at late stance of walking. Reciprocal inhibition was increased during standing and at late stance but not at the midstance phase of walking. The effects of combined TMS and DPN stimuli on the soleus H‐reflex significantly changed between tasks, resulting in an extra facilitation of the soleus H‐reflex during standing and not during walking. Our findings indicate that corticospinal inputs and Ia inhibitory interneurons interact at the spinal level in a task‐dependent manner, and that corticospinal modulation of reciprocal Ia inhibition is stronger during standing than during walking.
Wage-Directed Job Match with Multiple Applications and Multiple Vacancies: The Optimal Job Application Strategy and Wage Dispersion

This paper develops a model of directed-search where workers’ preference for a higher wage is explicitly modelled into their application strategy. In a general setting where jobs offer non-uniform wages and different probabilities of a job offer, the optimal strategy for selecting the set of applied jobs is established. In applying this to a homogeneous-workers job-matching market, the equilibrium outcome is then shown to entail wage dispersion when firms have non-uniform labour demand. Finally a matching function is derived that captures both urnball and multiple-applications frictions, that nests many of the existing functions.
Identifying Etiologically Distinct Sub-Types of Cancer: A Demonstration Project Involving Breast Cancer

With the advent of increasingly detailed molecular portraits of tumor specimens, much attention has been directed toward identifying clinically distinct subtypes of cancer. Subtyping of tumors can also be accomplished with the goal of identifying distinct etiologies. We demonstrate the use of new methodologies to identify genes that distinguish etiologically heterogeneous subtypes of breast cancer using data from the case–control Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study. Tumor specimens were evaluated using a breast cancer expression panel of 196 genes. Using a statistical measure that distinguishes the degree of etiologic heterogeneity in tumor subtypes, each gene is ranked on the basis of its ability to distinguish etiologically distinct subtypes. This is accomplished independently using case–control comparisons and by examining the concordance odds ratios in double primaries. The estrogen receptor gene, and others in this pathway with expression levels that correlated strongly with estrogen receptor levels, demonstrate high degrees of etiologic heterogeneity in both methods. Our results are consistent with a growing literature that confirms the distinct etiologies of breast cancers classified on the basis of estrogen receptor expression levels. This proof‐of‐principle project demonstrates the viability of new strategies to identify genomic features that distinguish subtypes of cancer from an etiologic perspective.
Chronic Stress Decreases Cerebrovascular Responses During Rat Hindlimb Electrical Stimulation

Repeated stress is one of the major risk factors for cerebrovascular disease, including stroke, and vascular dementia. However, the functional alterations in the cerebral hemodynamic response induced by chronic stress have not been clarified. Here, we investigated the in vivo cerebral hemodynamic changes and accompanying cellular and molecular changes in chronically stressed rats. After 3 weeks of restraint stress, the elicitation of stress was verified by behavioral despair in the forced swimming test and by physical indicators of stress. The evoked changes in the cerebral blood volume and pial artery responses following hindpaw electrical stimulation were measured using optical intrinsic signal imaging. We observed that, compared to the control group, animals under chronic restraint stress exhibited a decreased hemodynamic response, with a smaller pial arterial dilation in the somatosensory cortex during hindpaw electrical stimulation. The effect of chronic restraint stress on vasomodulator enzymes, including neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and heme oxygenase-2 (HO-2), was assessed in the somatosensory cortex. Chronic restraint stress downregulated nNOS and HO-2 compared to the control group. In addition, we examined the subtypes of cells that can explain the environmental changes due to the decreased vasomodulators. The expression of parvalbumin in GABAergic interneurons and glutamate receptor-1 in neurons were decreased, whereas the microglial activation was increased. Our results suggest that the chronic stress-induced alterations in cerebral vascular function and the modulations of the cellular expression in the neuro-vasomodulatory system may be crucial contributing factors in the development of various vascular-induced conditions in the brain.
Optimal Fiscal Policy in the Post-Crisis World

To contrast the severe global recession of 2009, governments in most advanced countries implemented expansionary fiscal policies leading to a steep increase in public debt. As economies recover, a critical choice is whether to stabilize debt at post-crisis levels, or to bring it down to pre-crisis levels. On this issue, advices of international institutions and those coming from mainstream economic theory are at odds. While international institutions have called for a substantial and fast debt reduction, optimal fiscal policy literature calls for debt stabilization. The aim of this paper is to provide a formal theoretical rationale to the policy advices of international institutions in a DSGE model (the workhorse of mainstream optimal fiscal policy theory). In particular, we consider a model in which a benevolent government has to choose taxes and debt in order to finance an exogenous stream of public expenditure. We compare the optimal fiscal plan in two contexts. In the first one households are fully confident about government solvency. In the second, households believe that there is a positive default probability which is positively related to the level of debt. While in the first framework a temporary bad shock translates into a permanent increase in the debt level, in the second one the increase in government debt is only temporary.
Radiographic Study of the Prevalence and Distribution of Hypodontia Associated with Unilateral and Bilateral Clef Lip and Palate in a Hungarian Population

Background Cleft defects are one of the most frequent birth-deformities of the orofacial region and they are commonly associated with anomalies of the tooth structure, size, shape, formation, eruption, and tooth number. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prevalence, distribution, and potential association of combined hypodontia in cleft-affected patients with regard to all types of teeth in both jaws in the permanent dentition. Material/Methods This retrospective radiographic analysis included patients with various types of clefts treated orthodontically in the Department of Orofacial Orthopedics and Orthodontics at Heim Pàl Children’s Hospital, Budapest. There were 150 patients (84 males, 66 females) with non-syndromic unilateral (UCLP; n=120 patients) or bilateral (BCLP; n=30 patients) cleft formation (lip, alveolus and palate) who met the inclusion criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test (significance level p<0.05). Results Hypodontia was significantly more frequent in patients with cleft-sided lateral incisor (104 patients, 69%), with a total of 235 missing teeth, followed by the second premolars of the upper and lower jaw. A significant correlation of congenital missing teeth was observed in left-sided clefts between the upper and lower second premolar in the cleft area. Conclusions Hypodontia inside and outside the cleft area was frequently observed. This should affect the therapy plans, especially if the cleft-sided premolar is also absent. Further comprehensive research including numerous random samples is necessary for better estimating other possible associations.
Incorporating spatial dependence in regional frequency analysis

The efficiency of regional frequency analysis (RFA) is undermined by intersite dependence, which is usually ignored in parameter estimation. We propose a spatial index flood model where marginal generalized extreme value distributions are joined by an extreme‐value copula characterized by a max‐stable process for the spatial dependence. The parameters are estimated with a pairwise likelihood constructed from bivariate marginal generalized extreme value distributions. The estimators of model parameters and return levels can be more efficient than those from the traditional index flood model when the max‐stable process fits the intersite dependence well. Through simulation, we compared the pairwise likelihood method with an L‐moment method and an independence likelihood method under various spatial dependence models and dependence levels. The pairwise likelihood method was found to be the most efficient in mean squared error if the dependence model was correctly specified. When the dependence model was misspecified within the max‐stable models, the pairwise likelihood method was still competitive relative to the other two methods. When the dependence model was not a max‐stable model, the pairwise likelihood method led to serious bias in estimating the shape parameter and return levels, especially when the dependence was strong. In an illustration with annual maximum precipitation data from Switzerland, the pairwise likelihood method yielded remarkable reduction in the standard errors of return level estimates in comparison to the L‐moment method.
The impact of the provision of public infrastructures on regional economic development in Germany

The present paper presents an analysis of the impact of public infrastructure capital on regional economic developments in Germany. After presenting some descriptive statistical data on the economies of the 11 regions in (West) Germany a simple theoretical model of a cost-minimizing firm is presented in which the stock of public capital is included as a proxy for public services provided to firms as a fixed unpaid factor of production. Duality theory is used to recover the productivity effects of public infrastructures by calculating the cost-saving effects that are associated with public services. It is shown that these cost-saving effects work their way through adjustments in the demand for private inputs. Using a translog cost 'function we present panel estimates for the 11 federal states of (West) Germany with labour, structures and equipment as private factors of production. The results strongly indicate that public capital formation encourages private investment. In addition, it is demonstrated empirically that with respect to private capital a distinction between structures and equipment is of crucial importance because the effects on the former are of far greater importance than the effects on the latter.
Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields Increased the Anti-Inflammatory Effect of A2A and A3 Adenosine Receptors in Human T/C-28a2 Chondrocytes and hFOB 1.19 Osteoblasts

Adenosine receptors (ARs) have an important role in the regulation of inflammation and their activation is involved in the inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine release. The effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) on inflammation have been reported and we have demonstrated that PEMFs increased A2A and A3AR density and functionality in different cell lines. Chondrocytes and osteoblasts are two key cell types in the skeletal system that play important role in cartilage and bone metabolism representing an interesting target to study the effect of PEMFs. The primary aim of the present study was to evaluate if PEMF exposure potentiated the anti-inflammatory effect of A2A and/or A3ARs in T/C-28a2 chondrocytes and hFOB 1.19 osteoblasts. Immunofluorescence, mRNA analysis and saturation binding assays revealed that PEMF exposure up-regulated A2A and A3AR expression. A2A and A3ARs were able to modulate cAMP production and cell proliferation. The activation of A2A and A3ARs resulted in the decrease of some of the most relevant pro-inflammatory cytokine release such as interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, following the treatment with IL-1β as an inflammatory stimuli. In human chondrocyte and osteoblast cell lines, the inhibitory effect of A2A and A3AR stimulation on the release of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), an important lipid inflammatory mediator, was observed. In addition, in T/C-28a2 cells, the activation of A2A or A3ARs elicited an inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion. In hFOB 1.19 osteoblasts, PEMF exposure determined an increase of osteoprotegerin (OPG) production. The effect of the A2A or A3AR agonists in the examined cells was enhanced in the presence of PEMFs and completely blocked by using well-known selective antagonists. These results demonstrated that PEMF exposure significantly increase the anti-inflammatory effect of A2A or A3ARs suggesting their potential therapeutic use in the therapy of inflammatory bone and joint disorders.
Status of the Logging Sector in Wisconsin and Michigan ’ s Upper Peninsula 2003

Professional loggers are key players in the management of the region's forest resource. They are an integral part of a multi-billion dollar wood products industry.ment of the forest resource and help various forest owners meet their myriad objectives. Through a comprehensive, random mail survey of logging fi rms in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, we offer the fi rst-ever study of this critical link between the forests and the wood products industry. The following key fi ndings relate to the business environment, timber production and supply, markets, and fi rm retention: The average fi rm has been in business for over 20 years and the average fi rm owner is 47 years old. There are relatively few new fi rms entering the sector. The majority (64%) of logging fi rms are fully mechanized. These are capital-intensive operations in which the median investment is $300,000. Most logging fi rms (62%) are organized as one-person, owner-operator enterprises with no employees. The balance of fi rms (38%) employs approximately fi ve full-time equivalent workers on average. Among fi rms with employees, over 85% reported diffi culty fi nding skilled and reliable workers. The average logging fi rm harvested 5,900 cords in 2003; however, production varied considerably. Mechanized fi rms that used both cut-to-length and feller-buncher systems were the most productive (approximately 20,000 cords per year) whereas chainsaw-based fi rms were the least (approximately 2,300 cords per year). who assisted with the study design. We appreciate the thoughtful comments of Resources Station, for outstanding administrative support, particularly during the survey phase of the project.
Association between IgM Anti-Herpes Simplex Virus and Plasma Amyloid-Beta Levels

Objective Herpes simplex virus (HSV) reactivation has been identified as a possible risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and plasma amyloid-beta (Aβ) levels might be considered as possible biomarkers of the risk of AD. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between anti-HSV antibodies and plasma Aβ levels. Methods The study sample consisted of 1222 subjects (73.9 y in mean) from the Three-City cohort. IgM and IgG anti-HSV antibodies were quantified using an ELISA kit, and plasma levels of Aβ1–40 and Aβ1–42 were measured using an xMAP-based assay technology. Cross-sectional analyses of the associations between anti-HSV antibodies and plasma Aβ levels were performed by multi-linear regression. Results After adjustment for study center, age, sex, education, and apolipoprotein E-e4 polymorphism, plasma Aβ1–42 and Aβ1–40 levels were specifically inversely associated with anti-HSV IgM levels (β = −20.7, P = 0.001 and β = −92.4, P = 0.007, respectively). In a sub-sample with information on CLU- and CR1-linked SNPs genotyping (n = 754), additional adjustment for CR1 or CLU markers did not modify these associations (adjustment for CR1 rs6656401, β = −25.6, P = 0.002 for Aβ1–42 and β = −132.7, P = 0.002 for Aβ1–40; adjustment for CLU rs2279590, β = −25.6, P = 0.002 for Aβ1–42 and β = −134.8, P = 0.002 for Aβ1–40). No association between the plasma Aβ1–42-to-Aβ1–40 ratio and anti-HSV IgM or IgG were evidenced. Conclusion High anti-HSV IgM levels, markers of HSV reactivation, are associated with lower plasma Aβ1–40 and Aβ1–42 levels, which suggest a possible involvement of the virus in the alterations of the APP processing and potentially in the pathogenesis of AD in human.