Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals the Metabolic Origins of Proline Excreted by an Escherichia coli Derivative during Growth on [ 13 C ] Acetate

We have used 13C nuclear magnetic resonance to monitor acetate metabolism in a proline-overproducing strain of Escherichia coli growing on 13C-labeled acetate. The conversion of "3C-labeled acetate to proline by actively dividing cells was followed in vivo, and the site specificity of the incorporation of the acetate carbons in the proline was determined from spectra of butanol extracts of the growth media. The degree of incorporation of deuterium from partially deuterated water into various sites on the proline was monitored from the B-deuterium-shifted signals in the 13C spectra. The spectra provide information on the origin of the carbons and the protons during proline biosynthesis.
Use of phoA and lacZ fusions to study the membrane topology of ProW, a component of the osmoregulated ProU transport system of Escherichia coli

The Escherichia coli ProU system is a member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily of transporters. ProU consists of three components (ProV, ProW, and ProX) and functions as a high-affinity, binding protein-dependent transport system for the osmoprotectants glycine betaine and proline betaine. The ProW protein is the integral inner membrane component of the ProU system. Its hydropathy profile predicts seven transmembrane spans and a hydrophilic amino terminus of approximately 100 residues, and it suggests the presence of an amphiphilic alpha-helix (L-61 to F-97) in close proximity to the first strongly hydrophobic segment of ProW. We have studied the membrane topology of the ProW protein by the phoA and lacZ gene fusion approach. A collection of 10 different proW-phoA fusions with alkaline phosphatase activity and 8 different proW-lacZ fusions with beta-galactosidase activity were isolated in vivo after TnphoAB and TnlacZ mutagenesis of a plasmid-encoded proW gene. The recovery of both enzymatically active ProW-PhoA and ProW-LacZ hybrid proteins indicates that segments of ProW are exposed on both sides of the cytoplasmic membrane. To compare the enzymatic activities of each of the indicator proteins joined at a particular site in ProW, we switched the phoA and lacZ reporter genes in vitro in each of the originally in vivo-isolated gene fusions. A mirror-like pattern in the enzyme activity of the resulting new ProW-PhoA and ProW-LacZ hybrid proteins emerged, thus providing positive signals for the location of both periplasmic and cytoplasmic domains in ProW. The protease kallikrein digests the amino-terminal tail of a ProW-LacZ hybrid protein in spheroplasts, suggesting that the amino terminus of ProW is located on the periplasmic side of the cytoplasmic membrane. From these data, a two-dimensional model for ProW was constructed; this model consists of seven transmembrane alpha-helices and an unusual amino-terminal tail of approximately 100 amino acid residues that protrudes into the periplasmic space.
Long-term follow-up of patients taking tenofovir DF with low-level HIV-1 viremia and the K65R substitution in HIV-1 RT

Patients with on-going HIV-1 replication and a K65R mutation in HIV-1 RT were assessed for further development of RT mutations while taking tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and other antiretroviral drugs. K65R was observed in 10 out of 536 treatment-experienced patients entering the study. K65R became undetectable in two patients, and the development of additional resistance mutations was minimal. Over 18 months, no patient developed multinucleoside resistance (Q151M or T69 insertions) and plasma viral loads were stable (median +0.04 log10 copies/ml).
“Running for the Exit": The Influence of Divestiture Experience on Divestiture Completion Times

Strategy researchers have in recent years become increasingly interested in the antecedents and consequences of speed. Despite this increasing interest, there are very few studies on how the capability for faster strategic decision-making is developed, and whether and when one can learn to speed up strategy implementation. Drawing on organizational learning theory, behavioral theory, and an analysis of a sample of more than 2’064 divestitures, we examine whether a firm’s divestiture experience contributes to faster divestiture completion times. Specifically, we examine how organizational slack, deal complexity and prior failure experience affect the hypothesized baseline relationship between divestiture experience and the speed of divestiture completion.
THE INTERNATIONAL OPENING OF SMALL DISTRICT FIRMS. FLEXIBILITY VS. CONSOLIDATION IN CHANNEL RELATIONS

The following study is concerned with an Italian industrial district that has been studied for a period of 18 years. This has made possible the construction of a taxonomy based on dynamic profiles of exporting firms, whose characters have been examined in their main changing patterns. The results of the research attest the presence of definite district economies along the distribution channels, that allow the enterprises to increase their competitiveness on a flexibility base, in spite of efficiency. The study tries to understand how much this condition, that prevents a radication in market relations, could remain an internationalization alternative model and a complementary behavior compared with those characterized by a stabler presence in the foreign countries and not only limited to trade activities.
ON A CERTAIN SUM OF AUTOMORPHIC L-FUNCTIONS

In Tate’s thesis [20], the characteristic function of Zp has been used in the integral representation of the local L-factor associated to an unramified quasicharacter. This construction has been generalized by Tamagawa, Godement and Jacquet in [19, 8] to principal L-functions of GLn with the characteristic function of the space of integral matrices as test function. The general automorphic L-function depends on a representation of the dual group. For each representation of the dual group, one can construct a function depending on a complex parameter s whose trace on an unramified representation is the associated local L-factor. The main contribution of this paper is a conjectural geometric description of this test function by means of Vinberg’s theory of algebraic monoids [21]. Prior to us, efforts have been made in this direction, notably by Braverman and Kazhdan [4] and Lafforgue [11]. By inserting into the trace formula the product of these functions at almost every place, we would get, at least formally, the sum of L-functions considered in [6, 7]. We will explain a conjectural geometric interpretation of this sum of L-functions. This paper is intended for an expository purpose, necessary details and proofs will be published elsewhere. I would like to thank W. Casselman, D. Jiang and the referee for their comments, and especially Y. Sakellaridis for enlightening exchange of views. I wasn’t fortunate enough to know Professor Piatetski-Shapiro personally, though I met him once or twice. In a conference in Luminy some time around 2004, his wife told me that Professor Piatetski-Shapiro appreciated my works. I keep the fond memory of this comment as one of my proudest mathematical prizes. I dedicate this work to his memory as an expression of a deep admiration for his ideas and courage.
Release of a Chemotactic Monokine Upon Treatment With Lymphocyte Supernatants

Macrophages produced and/or released a chemoattractant(s) for neutrophils after having been treated for 2 hr with soluble products from two lymphoma cell lines. Culture supernatants of the EL‐4 and Yac‐1 cell lines, but not sarcoma I, Bc100, or the macrophagelike cell line P388d1, triggered the release of the chemoattractant. The macrophage‐derived chemoattractant (MDC) was detectable within 2 hr following triggering and culture supernatants had maximal activity by 48 hr. The triggering of the macrophages to release the chemoattractant and the activity of the chemoattractant was not dependent upon any component of fetal bovine serum. Activation of complement was also not involved, since activated serum did not competitively inhibit the chemotactic activity of the macrophage‐derived chemoattractant. The chemoattractant was macromolecular, stable to heating at 90° for 15 min, sensitive to pronase and chymotrypsin, and was affected by treatment with low pH.
Real Effects in Anticipation of Mandatory Disclosures: Evidence from the European Union’s CSR Directive

In 2014, the European Union (EU) passed a corporate social responsibility (CSR) directive that mandates large listed firms to prepare non-financial reports beginning from fiscal year 2017 onward. We examine whether firms within the scope of the directive (hereafter, “treated firms”) anticipate the disclosure mandate—and related adverse stakeholder reactions—by increasing the CSR activities before the first mandatory disclosures. Consistent with such an anticipatory real effect, our results from a difference-in-differences test document that treated firms on average increase their CSR activities after the 2014 passage of the directive, and that this effect increases with lower pre-directive CSR disclosure levels. Findings from cross-sectional tests further show that the increase in CSR activities is larger for firms with higher expected benefits of the anticipation strategy (higher exposure to stakeholder reactions, stricter expected implementation of the directive, and longer investment horizon). Taken together, our study provides evidence on a specific channel through which CSR disclosure regulation may create real effects: anticipation of adverse stakeholder reactions.
Institutional Ownership and Firm Cash Holdings

We classify institutional investors into short-term and long-term based on their portfolio turnover and show that the positive relation between institutional ownership and firm cash holdings is mainly driven by short-term institutional investors. However, the relation between long-term institutional ownership and cash holdings is negative and less robust. The effect of both types of institutional ownership on cash holdings is amplified for growth firms compared to mature firms. Overall, our findings are consistent with the precautionary motive for holding cash but do not support the notion that institutional ownership mitigates the agency costs associated with cash holdings.
The contribution of testosterone to skeletal development and maintenance: lessons from the androgen insensitivity syndrome.

Although androgen status affects bone mass in women and men, an androgen requirement for skeletal normalcy has not been established. Women with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) have 46,XY genotypes with androgen receptor abnormalities rendering them partially or completely refractory to androgen. Twenty-eight women with AIS (22 complete and 6 high grade partial), aged 11-65 yr, responded to questionnaires about health history, gonadal surgery, and exogenous estrogen use and underwent bone mineral density (BMD) assessment by dual energy x-ray absortiometry. BMD values at the lumbar spine and proximal femur were compared to age-specific female normative values and listed as z-scores. Average height for adults in this cohort, 174 cm (68.5 in.), was moderately increased compared with the average height of adult American women of 162.3 cm, with skewing toward higher values: 5 women exceeded 6 ft in height, and 30% of the 18 adult women with complete AIS exceeded 5 ft, 11 in. in height. The average lumbar spine and hip BMD z-scores of the 6 women with partial AIS did not differ from population norms. In contrast, the average lumbar spine BMD z-score of women with complete AIS was significantly reduced at -1.08 (P = 0.0003), whereas the average value for hip BMD did not differ from normal. When BMD was compared between women who reported good estrogen replacement therapy compliance and those who reported poor compliance, there was a significantly greater deficit at the spine for women with poor compliance (z = -2.15 +/- 0.15 vs. -0.75 +/- 0.28; P < .0001). Furthermore, hip BMD was also significantly reduced in the noncompliant group (z = -0.95 +/- .40). Comparison of BMD values to normative male standards gave z-score reductions (z = -1.81 +/- 0.36) greater than those observed with female standards. Because of the high prevalence of tall stature in this study sample, we calculated bone mineral apparent density, a variable that adjusts for differences in bone size. Even for the estrogen-compliant group, bone mineral apparent density z-scores were subnormal at both the spine (z = -1.3 +/- 0.43; P < 0.01) and the hip (z = -1.38 +/- 0.28; P = 0.017). Six women with complete AIS had sustained cortical bone fractures, of whom 3 reported multiple (>3) fractures. We conclude that even when compliance to exogenous estrogen use is excellent, women with complete AIS show moderate deficits in spine BMD, averaging close to 1 SD from normative means, and that with correction of BMD for bone size, skeletal deficits are magnified and include the proximal femur. The results suggest that severe osteopenia in some women with AIS probably reflects a component of inadequate estrogen replacement rather than androgen lack alone.
Overexpression of the E1B 55-kilodalton (482R) protein of human adenovirus type 12 appears to permit efficient transformation of primary baby rat kidney cells in the absence of the E1B 19-kilodalton protein

To analyze the structure and function of the E1B 19,000-molecular-weight protein (19K protein) (163R) of human adenovirus type 12, mutants were produced at various positions across the 163R-coding sequence. Viruses bearing mutations within the first 100 or so amino acids yielded unstable 163R-related products, induced DNA degradation and enhanced cytopathic effect (cyt/deg phenotype) in KB cells, and transformed primary rodent cells at much lower efficiencies than wild-type (wt) virus. Deletion of the final 16 residues at the carboxy terminus had no phenotypic effect. Alteration of residue 105 reduced transforming efficiency significantly, suggesting that this region of 163R is functionally important. Disruption of the AUG initiation codon at nucleotide 1542 blocked production of 163R completely but resulted in higher levels of E1B 55K-482R protein synthesis and a transforming efficiency similar to that of wt virus. These data suggested that while 163R is of some importance, normal transforming efficiencies can be obtained in its absence if 482R is overexpressed.
The impact of online coupons on fan retention within an interuniversity sporting environment

The Internet and social media have transformed coupon distribution and use. Online coupons, or ecommerce Deal-of-the-Day (DOD) sales offering products and services at discount prices, have become increasingly popular as a promotional tool for sports organizations looking to increase attendance and event revenue. Although this trend has steadily grown, the impact of online DOD coupons on new consumers’ purchase intentions and purchase behaviours, as well as their repurchase intentions at full price is unclear. Applying Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour as a framework, this study aims to understand the use and the impact of online DOD coupons for university sporting events. Using content analysis, the attendance rate from an event offering discounted tickets through Groupon.ca will be examined. A survey will be used to determine whether new fans were generated through the use of online coupons, and to assess the future intentions of whether or not fans would continue to attend events without the use of a coupon. Findings from this study will help to inform university sports organizations about pricing and promotion efficiency, strategy, market segmentation, and branding. THE IMPACT OF ONLINE COUPONS ON FAN RETENTION 4
Effect of Laboratory Simulation Parameters on Spacecraft Dielectric Discharges

To assess the effect of dielectric charging on the performance of operational spacecraft, consideration must be given to extending laboratory simulations and measurements to operational conditions. Some of the key issues that must be addressed are the scaling of discharge characteristics from laboratory simulation exposure fluxes to the expected fluxes in space and the scaling from laboratory-sized objects to satellite-sized objects. In addition, consideration must be given to the effects of grounding laboratory test objects through relatively low impedances as opposed to high impedance, which is more representative of the actual space conditions. Some results have been reported previously (Refs. 1-4) on area and pulse width scaling, but little systematic investigation has been reported of the effects on the discharge characteristics of other simulation parameters. This paper presents results of a recent experimental investigation, part of which addresses these issues. Twelveand 36-inch-diameter 2-mil Kapton samples, a 24-inch-square Kapton thermal blanket, a 36-inch 4-mil fiberglass sample, and a second-surface mirror array were exposed to 25-keV electrons. Measurements were made of the discharge current and time history, blowoff current and time history, and the surface potential before and after discharge. RE-02092 EDGE SIGNAL
The Role of Community in Migration Dynamics

In this paper, we present a theoretical model that, implementing the pioneering work of Burda (1995), based on the Real Option Theory, investigates the roots of the migration dynamics. In the model the decision to migrate of each individual depends not only on the wage differential, but also on a U-shaped benefit function of a community of homogeneous ethnic individuals, modelled according to the "theory of clubs". The theoretical results are able to give an explanation to the observable "jumps" in the migration flows and to describe how the trigger for entry can change depending on the dimension of the district. The analysis of the results also sheds light on the dynamics of the districts' development: some possible rigidities in the adjustment of the district dimension, as regards the optimal levels, could magnify the hysteresis process.
Bilateral electrodermal activity, lateralized cerebral processing and sex.

The present study involved the assessment of systematic differences between skin conductance measures recorded bilaterally and concomitantly from 59 right-handed subjects while they were exposed to three types of stimuli. The stimuli were 5 min each of: a quiet period, a period of music, and a period of listening to a series of paragraphs. The music and paragraph conditions served, respectively, as operational definitions of right and left hemisphere tasks. Sex and genetic handedness were also assessed. Results showed that subjects with a family history of sinistrality gave more frequent SCRs on the left hand than on the right hand under the verbal condition, while those with entirely dextral families showed no left-right differentiation. In addition, musical stimulation produced more frequent responses in males than females, while the reverse was true for verbal stimuli. Finally, tonic SCL was higher on the right hand in males and on the left in females. Stimulation intended for a specific hemisphere did not produce significantly greater electrodermal activity on the contralateral hand.
HITS at TAC KBP 2015: Entity Discovery and Linking, and Event Nugget Detection

HITS participated in the English Entity Linking and Discovery (EDL) and Event Nugget Detection (EN task 1) tracks at TAC KBP 2015. Our EDL system introduces a novel, interleaved multitasking approach, which allows interaction between interdependent entity linking subtasks while avoiding the structural and algorithmic complexity of joint models. Out of the eight systems that participated in the monolingual English EDL evaluation, our system is ranked ﬁrst in linking and second in clustering. HITS also participated in the Event Nugget Detection task. Our approach is based on a structured perceptron which predicts entity mentions, event triggers, and realis jointly. We generalize to unknown triggers with hidden units, a concept used by the frame-semantic parser SEMAFOR.
Housing wealth as retirement saving: Does the Australian Model Lead to Over-Consumption of Housing?

Owner-occupied housing has long been seen as a key pillar of retirement saving in Australia. The Australian elderly receive a relatively small amount of their income from occupational pensions, have high home ownership and private saving, and Australia is particularly unusual in that the majority of the aged population receive an income and assets-tested aged pension (which excludes the owner-occupied home). Does this model contribute to making the Australian elderly asset rich but income poor? How does pattern of housing wealth accumulation in Australia compare with that in other countries? This paper examines these questions using data from eight countries in the Luxembourg Wealth Study together with comparable Australian household survey data. Australian income and housing wealth patterns in retirement are very different to those of the other eight countries. After retirement, incomes fall more steeply and housing wealth is higher. Even though housing consumption as a share of total consumption increases after retirement in all countries, this increase is particularly steep in Australia (and possibly the US).
Cognition, Brain, Behavior

The prediction of academic achievement with cognitive testing has important practical and theoretical implications. Although there are associations between cognitive performance and school grades, this does not extend well to higher education. An alternative to intelligence or IQ testing as a predictor of grades is lexical reading. Access to the mental lexicon is particularly important when reading aloud forms with irregular grapheme-phoneme conversion or unpredictable stress patterns. Such words have to be learnt and already present in declarative lexical stores to be reliably pronounced correctly. A sample of 102 participants was assessed with a standard test of lexical reading, the Word Accentuation Test (WAT) which involves pronunciation of a list of low-frequency words. To assess semantic-conceptual contributions to performance, they also completed a version of the WAT in which they read the same words embedded in sentences, as well as performed a stem-completion naming task. All the tests had good psychometric properties, and the two tests of lexical reading were both significant predictors of academic achievement. Reading aloud in sentences did improve pronunciation accuracy, particularly for poor readers. However, it did not add anything to the ability to predict GPA. In fact, when using linear regression, the best predictor of academic achievement (R = .40) was the pronunciation of low-frequency word forms presented in isolation. This predictive ability suggests that the breadth of learnt stores of lexical forms, but not associated semantic processing, may be an individual difference that can potentially predict collegelevel academic achievement. The association with dyslexia is also considered.