Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atg8 is Essential for Macropexophagy in Hansenula polymorpha

We have isolated a peroxisome‐degradation‐deficient (pdd) mutant of the methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha via gene tagging mutagenesis. Sequencing revealed that the mutant was affected in the HpATG8 gene. HpAtg8 is a protein with high sequence similarity to both Pichia pastoris and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Atg8 and appeared to be essential for selective peroxisome degradation (macropexophagy) and nitrogen‐limitation induced microautophagy. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that a GFP.Atg8 fusion protein was located close to the vacuole. After induction of macropexophagy, the GFP.Atg8 containing spot extended to engulf an individual peroxisome. In cells of a constructed deletion strain, sequestration of individual organelles was never completed; analysis of series of serial sections revealed that invariably a minor diaphragm‐like opening remained. We hypothesize that H. polymorpha Atg8 facilitates sealing of the sequestering membranes during selective peroxisome degradation.
They don't all look alike: individuated impressions of other racial groups.

Reliability, content, and homogeneity of own- and other-race impressions were assessed: U.S. White, U.S. Black, and Korean students rated faces of White, Black, or Korean men. High intraracial reliabilities revealed that people of 1 race showed equally high agreement regarding the traits of own- and other-race faces. Racially universal appearance stereotypes--the attractiveness halo effect and the babyface overgeneralization effect--contributed substantially to interracial agreement, which was only marginally lower than intraracial agreement. Moreover, similar attention to variations in appearance yielded similar degrees of own- and other-race trait differentiation. When own- and other-race differences in the differentiation of faces on babyfaceness were statistically controlled, differences in trait differentiation were eliminated. Despite the individuated impressions of other-race faces, certain racial stereotypes persisted.
Model-Based Fair Values for Financial Instruments: Relevance or Reliability? Evidence from a Conjoint Analysis

The FASB and the IASB have defined the provision of decision useful information as the primary objective of financial reporting. Decision usefulness is based on two fundamental qualitative characteristics, namely, relevance and reliability (now replaced by ‘faithful representation’). Using a conjoint analysis, we examine the extent to which relevance and reliability contribute to decision usefulness. Two hundred and two MSc and MBA students enrolled in financial and managerial accounting courses ranked, by decision usefulness, five different techniques for determining a risk premium in the context of estimating a corporate bond’s model-based fair value. The techniques have different combinations of relevance and reliability in a trade-off situation. The results show that relevance contributes to decision usefulness more than reliability, independent of an individual’s degree of uncertainty avoidance or their familiarity with fair values. Additional experimentation with financial analysts and auditors confirms our results. The findings have important implications for academics, preparers, and especially standard-setters.
Omega-3 fatty acids improve blood pressure control and preserve renal function in hypertensive heart transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND Hypertension and cyclosporine-induced nephrotoxicity are common complications in heart transplant recipients. Omega-3 fatty acids may prevent blood pressure rise early, but have not been studied long-term after heart transplantation. METHODS AND RESULTS Forty-five clinically stable hypertensive heart transplant recipients were studied 1-12 years after transplantation and randomized in a double-blind fashion to receive either 3.4 g of omega-3 fatty acids daily or placebo for 1 year. Ambulatory 24 h blood pressure monitoring and haemodynamic studies were performed before randomization and at the end of the study. Systolic blood pressure increased by 8+/-3 mmHg (P<0.01) in the placebo group, with a non-significant increase in diastolic blood pressure of 3+/-2 mmHg (P=0.10), accompanied by a 14% increase in systemic vascular resistance (P<0.05). In contrast, no change in blood pressure or systemic vascular resistance was recorded in the omega-3 group. Plasma creatinine increased (P<0.01) and glomerular filtration rate decreased (P<0.05) in the placebo group, while no changes were observed in the omega-3 group. The antihypertensive effect was related to an increase in serum eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid. CONCLUSION Treatment with omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the long-term continuous rise in blood pressure after heart transplantation and may offer a direct or indirect renoprotective effect, making these fatty acids a potentially attractive treatment for post-transplant hypertension.
C-type natriuretic-peptide-potentiated relaxation response of gastric smooth muscle in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

AIM To study the sensitivity of gastric smooth muscle to C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. METHODS The spontaneous contraction of a gastric smooth muscle strip was recorded by using physiological methods in rats. The expressions of CNP and natriuretic peptide receptor-B (NPR-B) in gastric tissue were examined by using immunohistochemistry techniques in the diabetic rat. RESULTS At 4 wk after injection of STZ and vehicle, the frequency of spontaneous contraction of gastric smooth muscle was significantly reduced in diabetic rats, and the frequency was decreased from 3.10 +/- 0.14 cycle/min in controls to 2.23 +/- 0.13 cycle/min (n = 8, P < 0.01). However, the amplitude of spontaneous contraction was not significant different from the normal rat. CNP significantly inhibited spontaneous contraction of gastric smooth muscle in normal and diabetic rats, but the inhibitory effect was significantly potentiated in the diabetic rats. The amplitudes of spontaneous contraction were suppressed by 75.15% +/- 0.71% and 58.92% +/- 1.32% while the frequencies were decreased by 53.33% +/- 2.03% and 26.95% +/- 2.82% in diabetic and normal rats, respectively (n = 8, P < 0.01). The expression of CNP in gastric tissue was not changed in diabetic rats, however the expression of NPR-B was significantly increased in diabetic rats, and the staining indexes of NPR-B were 30.67 +/- 1.59 and 17.63 +/- 1.49 in diabetic and normal rat, respectively (n = 8, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION The results suggest that CNP induced an inhibitory effect on spontaneous contraction of gastric smooth muscle, potentiated in diabetic rat via up-regulation of the natriuretic peptides-NPR-B-particulate guanylyl cyclase-cyclic GMP signal pathway.
Functional Characterization of MAT1-1-Specific Mating-Type Genes in the Homothallic Ascomycete Sordaria macrospora Provides New Insights into Essential and Nonessential Sexual Regulators

ABSTRACT Mating-type genes in fungi encode regulators of mating and sexual development. Heterothallic ascomycete species require different sets of mating-type genes to control nonself-recognition and mating of compatible partners of different mating types. Homothallic (self-fertile) species also carry mating-type genes in their genome that are essential for sexual development. To analyze the molecular basis of homothallism and the role of mating-type genes during fruiting-body development, we deleted each of the three genes, SmtA-1 (MAT1-1-1), SmtA-2 (MAT1-1-2), and SmtA-3 (MAT1-1-3), contained in the MAT1-1 part of the mating-type locus of the homothallic ascomycete species Sordaria macrospora. Phenotypic analysis of deletion mutants revealed that the PPF domain protein-encoding gene SmtA-2 is essential for sexual reproduction, whereas the α domain protein-encoding genes SmtA-1 and SmtA-3 play no role in fruiting-body development. By means of cross-species microarray analysis using Neurospora crassa oligonucleotide microarrays hybridized with S. macrospora targets and quantitative real-time PCR, we identified genes expressed under the control of SmtA-1 and SmtA-2. Both genes are involved in the regulation of gene expression, including that of pheromone genes.
Preparation and characterisation of the colistin-entrapped liposome driven by electrostatic interaction for intravenous administration

Abstract Potential use of liposome for polycationic colistin is hindered by their phospholipid membrane permeability. In this study, liposomes were modified with sodium cholesteryl sulphate (Chol-SO4−) for improving the colistin loading by enhancing the colistin-bilayer electrostatic attraction. We have evaluated two liposomes: colistin-entrapped liposome of Chol-SO4− (CCL) and coated Chol-SO4−/colistin complex liposome (CCCL). In comparison with CCL which formed large aggregates at Chol-SO4−/colistin charge ratio below 2:1, CCCL showed a smaller size less dependent on the charge ratio, probably arising from more colistin entrapped on the inner leaflet of bilayer. Both liposomes exhibited significantly increased entrapment efficiency as compared with the liposome without Chol-SO4−. But colistin released upon dilution, implying free transfer of colistin through bilayers. Pharmacokinetics results showed the approximately four-fold increase in the plasma AUC0–8 h for CCCL and CCL as compared with colistin solution, showing potential benefit for infectious target localisation by prolonging the systemic circulation of colistin.
Collective Stochastic Discrete Choice Problems: A Min-LQG Dynamic Game Formulation

We consider a class of dynamic collective choice models with social interactions, whereby a large number of nonuniform agents have to individually settle on one of multiple discrete alternative choices, with the relevance of their would-be choices continuously impacted by noise and the unfolding group behavior. This class of problems is modeled here as a so-called min-LQG game, i.e., a linear quadratic Gaussian dynamic and noncooperative game, with an additional combinatorial aspect in that it includes a final choice-related minimization in its terminal cost. The presence of this minimization term is key to enforcing some specific discrete choice by each individual agent. The theory of mean field games is invoked to generate a class of decentralized agent feedback control strategies, which are then shown to converge to an exact Nash equilibrium of the game as the number of players increases to infinity. A key building block in our approach is an explicit solution to the problem of computing the best response of a generic agent to some arbitrarily posited smooth mean field trajectory. Ultimately, an agent is shown to face a continuously revised discrete choice problem, where greedy choices dictated by current conditions must be constantly balanced against the risk of the future process noise upsetting the wisdom of such decisions. We show that any Nash equilibrium of the game is defined by an a priori computable probability matrix, which describes the distribution of the players’ choices over the alternatives. The results are illustrated through simulations.
Does good governance lead to better financial performance

The relationship between corporate governance and financial performance of firms has been a widely debated topic. More particularly, the direction of the relationship, whether better corporate governance leads to better financial performance or the vice versa has often been debated. More often, firms decide whether to have better governance standards within the company and this self-selection gives biased OLS regression results. In this paper, using data for Indian companies, we adjust for this endogeneity and find that corporate governance is positively related to financial performance. We finally find that the average ROA of well-governed firms would have decreased by almost 40% if they were poorly-governed.
Neural Representation and Causal Models in Motor Cortex

Dorsal premotor (PMd) and primary motor (M1) cortices play a central role in mapping sensation to movement. Many studies of these areas have focused on correlation-based tuning curves relating neural activity to task or movement parameters, but the link between tuning and movement generation is unclear. We recorded motor preparatory activity from populations of neurons in PMd/M1 as macaque monkeys performed a visually guided reaching task and show that tuning curves for sensory inputs (reach target direction) and motor outputs (initial movement direction) are not typically aligned. We then used a simple, causal model to determine the expected relationship between sensory and motor tuning. The model shows that movement variability is minimized when output neurons (those that directly drive movement) have target and movement tuning that are linearly related across targets and cells. In contrast, for neurons that only affect movement via projections to output neurons, the relationship between target and movement tuning is determined by the pattern of projections to output neurons and may even be uncorrelated, as was observed for the PMd/M1 population as a whole. We therefore determined the relationship between target and movement tuning for subpopulations of cells defined by the temporal duration of their spike waveforms, which may distinguish cell types. We found a strong correlation between target and movement tuning for only a subpopulation of neurons with intermediate spike durations (trough-to-peak ∼350 μs after high-pass filtering), suggesting that these cells have the most direct role in driving motor output. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study focuses on how macaque premotor and primary motor cortices transform sensory inputs into motor outputs. We develop empirical and theoretical links between causal models of this transformation and more traditional, correlation-based “tuning curve” analyses. Contrary to common assumptions, we show that sensory and motor tuning curves for premovement preparatory activity do not generally align. Using a simple causal model, we show that tuning-curve alignment is only expected for output neurons that drive movement. Finally, we identify a physiologically defined subpopulation of neurons with strong tuning-curve alignment, suggesting that it contains a high concentration of output cells. This study demonstrates how analysis of movement variability, combined with simple causal models, can uncover the circuit structure of sensorimotor transformations.
Large Sample Approximations of Probabilities of Correct Evolutionary Tree Estimation and Biases of Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Simulation studies have been the main way in which properties of maximum likelihood estimation of evolutionary trees from aligned sequence data have been studied. Because trees are unusual parameters and because fitting is computationally intensive, such studies have a heavy computational cost. We develop an asymptotic framework that can be used to obtain probabilities of correct topological reconstruction and study other properties of likelihood methods when a single split is poorly resolved. Simulations suggest that while approximations to log likelihood differences are better for less well-resolved topologies, approximations to probabilities of correct reconstruction are generally good. We used the approximations to investigate biases in estimation and found that maximum likelihood estimation has a long-branch-repels bias. This differs from the long-branch-attracts bias often reported in the literature because it is a different form of bias. For maximum likelihood estimation, usually long-branch-attracts bias results arise in the presence of model misspecification and are a form of statistical inconsistency where the estimated tree converges upon an incorrect tree with long edges together. Here, by bias we mean a tendency to favour a particular topology when data are generated from a four-taxon star tree. While we find a tendency to favour the tree with long branches apart, with more extreme long edges, a strong small sequence-length long-branch-attracts bias overwhelms the long-branch-repels bias. The long-branch-repels bias generalizes to five and six taxa in the sense that subtrees containing taxa that are all distant from the poorly resolved split repel each other.
Epidemiological, demographic, and social correlates of disability among the elderly.

The magnitude and quality of the problem of disability for the United States elderly population was analyzed in a series of projections. An analysis of the impact of disability on this population is more difficult than for other disabled groups because previously, in both the popular and scientific literature, there was the assumption that the prevalence and severity of disability was a natural consequence of the aging process. Such a perspective has implications not only for initiatives to improve the health and functional states of the elderly population but also for the perception of the level of disability, the handicaps associated with it, and the types of services that are appropriately provided. This image of the natural emergence of frailty with age is now challenged by a number of studies. The extreme heterogeneity of functional status in even the oldest-old (those aged 85 and over) population is evidence that functional impairment among the elderly is not a natural consequence of aging and must be evaluated on an individual basis. There is also increasing evidence that the physiological processes generating impairment are subject to intervention and, in some cases, may even be partly reversed and function regained. Recent research has begun to identify the risk factors for such processes and to explicate the mechanisms of these processes so that more effective interventions can be developed. Whatever interventions may be introduced, the demographic aging of the population will cause large increases in the number of disabled elderly. This is a national problem whose magnitude will depend upon the degree to which the broadly defined needs of this population are or are not met. We considered needs on a number of levels. In terms of basic self-care only bathing and toileting are reported as currently "unmet" to a considerable degree. The most serious deficiencies on a relative basis were for physical equipment and changes in the built environment. All of these factors contribute to a general assessment of changes in the size, structure, and needs of the disabled elderly population. It is clear that no single response will suffice given the magnitude of the problems. Thus, a multidimensional approach involving the private sector and state and federal programs, and their coordination, will be needed to develop adequate responses to the problem. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Oil Discovery and Macroeconomic Management: The Recent Ghanaian Experience

This paper analyses the evolution of fiscal and monetary variables in Ghana, from the discovery of oil in 2007 through to 2014. It documents the deterioration of fiscal and monetary discipline over this period, which resulted in a rebound of debt, a deterioration of the external balance, and a decrease in public investment. The paper goes on to analyse the potential causes of this deterioration, including the political economy context, and the fiscal and monetary institutional framework. The suggested causes include the politics of Ghana's dominant two-party system. Finally, the paper discusses what Ghana could have done differently to avoid the various damaging effects associated with the oil discovery. It does not aim to provide specific fiscal policy recommendations for Ghana, but rather to give an empirical account of Ghana's experience that may be useful for other countries that discover oil.
Homozygous deletion and frequent allelic loss of the 21q11.1‐q21.1 region including the ANA gene in human lung carcinoma

The frequent occurrence of 21q deletions in human non‐small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) indicates the presence of a tumor suppressor gene on this chromosome arm. Since the ANA (Abundant in Neuroepithelium Area) gene, a member of an antiproliferative gene family, was mapped to 21q11.2‐q21.1, we searched for genetic alterations of the ANA gene in human lung cancers. The gene was homozygously deleted in a human NSCLC cell line, Ma17. The gene was mapped in the 0.33 Mb NotI fragment at 21q21.1 of the NotI restriction map for 21q. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at this locus was detected in 24/47 (51.1%) of NSCLC, and the frequency of LOH in brain metastases was significantly higher than that in stage I–II primary tumors (P = 0.018). These results suggested that the homozygously deleted region harbors a novel tumor suppressor gene involved in NSCLC progression. Since mutation of the ANA gene was not detected in other lung cancer cell lines and fresh lung tumors with LOH at this locus, it is unlikely that the ANA gene is a target gene inactivated by two mutational events in this chromosomal region. Physical mapping of the homozygously deleted region showed that the deletion had occurred interstitially at 21q11.1‐q21.1 and the size of the deletion was estimated as being more than 3 Mb. Our mapping results will facilitate further efforts to identify a tumor suppressor gene on 21q. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 21:236–243, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Clinical Characteristics of Bicuspid Aortic Valves in Surgical Patients

Of 413 patients undergoing surgery for aortic valve disease, 42 were confirmed to have congenital bicuspid aortic valve. There were 24 males and 18 females, with a mean age of 54.9 ± 14.6 years. The etiology of the surgical indications in patients with bicuspid valves were degeneration, rheumatic disease, and infectious endocarditis. Thirty-two patients had aortic stenosis and 10 had aortic regurgitation. Infective endocarditis was seen mainly in patients ≤50 years of age at the time of surgery, while degenerative aortic stenosis occurred more often in older patients. The annular diameter measured during surgery was significantly narrower in the 42 patients with bicuspid valves compared to 371 patients with tricuspid valves who underwent aortic valve replacement during the same period. It is important to prevent infectious endocarditis in younger patients diagnosed with bicuspid aortic valve, whereas careful attention should be paid to decalcification during surgery in older patients because the vast majority suffer from degenerative aortic stenosis.