Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short cationic antimicrobial peptides bind to human alpha‐1 acid glycoprotein with no implications for the in vitro bioactivity

Several drugs interact with the major plasma proteins serum albumin and alpha‐1 acid glycoprotein. Such binding may be either beneficial or disadvantageous from a pharmacokinetic perspective. In the present paper, we investigate the thermodynamics involved in the binding of a series of promising cationic antimicrobial peptides to the alpha‐1 acid glycoprotein using isothermal titration calorimetry. The drug‐like peptides are able to effectively destroy multiresistant bacterial strains, and members of this peptide class are currently in clinical phase II trials. Similar peptides, in a previous study, have been shown to bind to serum albumin resulting in a 10‐fold reduction in the peptides ability to kill bacteria in vitro. Here, it is shown that the peptides also are ligands for alpha‐1 glycoprotein with moderate binding affinities. The binding mode is investigated in detail using molecular docking, which maps the interaction to sub‐pockets I, II and III of the binding site. Despite this interaction, protein binding is shown to have little or no effect on the ability of the peptides to kill bacteria in vitro, either at normal physiological or acute phase concentrations. The results show that although the peptides interact with the binding pocket of alpha‐1 acid glycoprotein, the low stoichiometric binding ratio ensures that the interaction is not an obstacle for further development of these promising peptides as antimicrobial therapies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Use of Independent Training Providers in Vocational Education and Training--Wider Considerations for Employers and Policy Makers. SKOPE Issues Paper 34.

Against a background of falling employer investment in education and training the Government has supported the growth of independent training providers (ITPs) in the hope that this will drive up employer engagement in formal vocational education and training (VET) schemes. The case for doing so is, on the face of it, persuasive but when account is taken of the variable impact that outsourcing VET can have on organisations it becomes clear that this is dependent on how well it is managed. The factors that affect the success with which organisations engage ITPs appear to be poorly understood but this short paper highlights some of the associated areas that need to be looked at more closely to inform the development of best practice and public policy.
Scaled and decoupled Cholesky and QR decompositions with application to spherical MIMO detection

Motivated by the need for the Cholesky factorization in implementing a spherical MIMO detector, this paper considers Cholesky and QR decompositions suitable for fixed-point implementation. In particular, we reformulate the decompositions to avoid the many square-root and division operations required in their natural form. This is achieved by decoupling the numerator and denominator calculations and applying scaling by powers of 2 (corresponding to bit shifts) to ensure numerical stability in the recursions. We consider the impact on the spherical detector formulation.
Antimicrobial Resistance of DiarrheagenicEscherichia coli Isolated from Children under the Age of 5 Years from Ifakara, Tanzania

ABSTRACT Diarrhea caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria is an important public health problem among children in developing countries. The prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of diarrheagenicEscherichia coli in 346 children under 5 years of age in Ifakara, Tanzania, were studied. Thirty-eight percent of the cases of diarrhea were due to multiresistant enterotoxigenic E. coli, enteroaggregative E. coli, or enteropathogenicE. coli. Strains of all three E. colicategories showed high-level resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline, co-trimoxazole, and chloramphenicol but were highly susceptible to quinolones. Guidelines for appropriate use of antibiotics in developing countries need updating.
Resilience learning for water sector culture change

This paper investigates barriers to creating a resilient water sector, focussing on the workforce. Firstly, it explores the definition of resilience and whether the workforce and customers are ready for a culture shift to create a more resilient sector. Secondly, it reports the threats that water companies are facing in making the shift to create a more resilient workforce. Thirdly, the resilience-building measures reported are mapped onto the Safe & SuRe framework (Butler et al. 2017), which enables interventions to be classified as either mitigation, adaptation, coping or learning and helps to illustrate how they act to minimise the consequences of any future threats (Figure 1). The paper concludes by summarising its wider contributions to knowledge, policy and practice.
Customary Land Tenure Practices and the Livelihoods of Peasants in the Nanumba Traditional Area

iii Dedication . iv Acknowledgement . v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.0 Chapter Overview . 1 1.1 Background to the Study . 2 1.2 Problem Statement . 9 1.3 Research Questions . 14 1.4 Specific Objectives . 14 1.5 Significance of the Study . 15 1.6 Scope of the Study . 15 1.7 Limitations of the Study. 16 1.8 Organization of the Study . 17 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Overview . 19 2.1 Livelihoods . 19 2.2 Customary Authority in Perspectives . 22 2.3 Customary Land Tenure Practices in the Northern Regions . 23
Analysis of Lamarckian evolution in morphologically evolving robots

Evolving robot morphologies implies the need for lifetime learning so that newborn robots can learn to manipulate their bodies. An individual’s morphology will obviously combine traits of all its parents; it must adapt its own controller to suit its morphology, and cannot rely on the controller of any one parent to perform well without adaptation. This paper investigates the practicability and benefits of Lamarckian evolution in this setting. Implementing lifetime learning by means of on-line evolution, we first establish the suitability of an indirect encoding scheme that combines Compositional Pattern Producing Networks (CPPNs) and Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) as a relevant learner and controller for open-loop gait controllers. We then analyze a Lamarckian set-up and the effect of the parental genetic material on the early convergence to good locomotion performance.
Mirrored non-maximum suppression for accurate object part localization

There has been significant progress in object part localization such as human pose estimation and facial landmark detection. In most of the previous methods, two phenomena are ignored. Firstly, they usually output a set of candidate pose hypotheses but the hypothesis with the highest score obtained by Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) is not always the optimal result. Secondly, they can not get exactly bilaterally symmetric keypoints on the mirrored images even though the training data is always augmented with mirrored images. In fact, the intrinsic relationship between the original image and the mirrored one is helpful for object part localization. In this paper, we propose Mirrored Non-Maximum Suppression (Mirrored NMS) which can utilize mirrored detections to improve the accuracy of object part localization. Experimental results show that our method can improve the state-of-the-art accuracy by 1.3~3.0% in PCP for human pose estimation and can produce more accurate results than averaging multiple hypotheses for facial landmark detection.
Sumo-1 Function Is Dispensable in Normal Mouse Development

ABSTRACT To elucidate SUMO-1 functions in vivo, we targeted by homologous recombination the last three exons of the murine Sumo-1 gene. Sumo-1 mRNA abundance was reduced to one-half in heterozygotes and was undetectable in Sumo-1−/− mice, and SUMO-1-conjugated RanGAP1 was detectable in wild-type mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) but not in Sumo-1−/− MEFs, indicating that gene targeting yielded Sumo-1-null mice. Sumo-1 mRNA is expressed in all tissues of wild-type mice, and its abundance is highest in the testis, brain, lungs, and spleen. Sumo-2 and Sumo-3 mRNAs are also expressed in all tissues, but their abundance was not upregulated in Sumo-1-null mice. The development and function of testis are normal in the absence of Sumo-1, and Sumo-1−/− mice of both sexes are viable and fertile. In contrast to a previous report (F. S. Alkuraya et al., Science 313:1751, 2006), we did not observe embryonic or early postnatal demise of Sumo-1-targeted mice; genotypes of embryos and 21-day-old mice were of predicted Mendelian ratios, and there was no defect in lip and palate development in Sumo-1+/− or Sumo-1−/− embryos. The ability of Sumo-1−/− MEFs to differentiate into adipocyte was not different from that of wild-type MEFs. Collectively, our results support the notion that most, if not all, SUMO-1 functions are compensated for in vivo by SUMO-2 and SUMO-3.
The association between gender diversity, directors' qualification and the performance of Australian listed companies

VIII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 MOTIVATIONS . 4 1.2.1 To address the issue of mixed findings regarding the impact of gender diversity on organisation performance . 5 1.2.2 To examine the association of each component of female director on board and Blau index with organisation performance using Australian data on gender diversity . 6 1.2.3 To provide insights into the impact of directors’ qualification on organisation performance . 7 1.3 CONTRIBUTIONS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS . 8 1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS . 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 10 2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 10 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT . 13 2.2.1 Association between gender diversity and organisation performance . 13 2.2.2 Association between professional qualification and expertise of directors and organisation performance . 18 2.3 CHAPTER SUMMARY . 24 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD . 26 3.1 STUDY DESIGN . 26 3.2 DEPENDENT VARIABLE . 27 3.2.1 Tobin’s Q . 28 3.2.2 Return on assets (ROA) . 28 3.2.3 Return on equity (ROE) . 29 3.3 INDEPENDENT VARIABLES . 29 3.3.1 Gender diversity . 30 3.3.2 Directors’ professional qualification . 32 3.3.3 Directors’ professional expertise . 33 3.4 CONTROL VARIABLES . 34 3.4. 1 Proportion of independent directors . 34 3.4. 2 Attendance of directors . 34 3.4. 3 Big four audit organisation . 35 3.4. 4 Industry type . 35 3.4. 5 Growth . 35 3.4. 7 Organisation age. 36 3.4. 8 Board size . 36 3.4. 9 Director age . 36
The Discretionary Accrual in the Financial Statement of a Public Company in Indonesia: A Literature Review

Abstract Purpose – Previous studies distinguish revenue management based on discretionary accruals; the research of studies is to investigate the factors that affect the finance manager at the discretionary accrual in General financial information statement. Design/Methodology/Approach – Literature review models used in research aimed at detecting any company that performs the company’s discretion to fulfill the accrual of interests internally. This research study also discusses the relationship between earnings and discretionary manager behavior. Findings – The researcher wants to re-examine the hypothesis of market efficiency on Indonesia’s capital market. The current company information technology uses greatly influences worldwide investor interest to invest on Indonesian’s capital market. Emerging Indonesia Capital market status becomes very interesting to be studied. Originality/Value – It also presented the shortcomings of current research and the trends for future study in capital market.
The role of APOE-epsilon4 in longitudinal cognitive decline: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging.

BACKGROUND While a genetic risk factor for late-onset AD, the effects of the epsilon4 allele of the APOE gene on cognitive functioning more generally remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To assess the role of the epsilon4 allele of the APOE gene in longitudinal cognitive decline. METHODS Multiple measures of cognitive function were assessed longitudinally in the MacArthur Successful Aging Study, a population-based cohort free of frank impairment at baseline. Subjects were 965 Caucasian and African American men and women from Durham NC, East Boston, MA, and New Haven, CT, aged 70 to 79 years, recruited in 1988 through 1989, who completed two follow-up evaluations, one at 3 years and another at 7 years. RESULTS At the first follow-up, modest but significant declines in naming and spatial ability were associated with the APOE-epsilon4 genotype. By the second follow-up, more pronounced and significant associations were noted between the APOE-epsilon4 genotype and cognitive decline from six of the eight cognitive outcomes. After 7 years, APOE-epsilon4 allele carriers were twice as likely to have declined on a global cognitive score (odds ratio = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.6) as noncarriers. CONCLUSIONS APOE-epsilon4 is associated with cognitive decline among a high-functioning elderly cohort, with effects most pronounced after 7 years of follow-up. Hence, the epsilon4 allele either may function as a risk factor for cognitive impairment in normal aging across a broad spectrum of domains or may exert detectable effects early in a long prodromal AD trajectory.
Evaluation of the association between company performance and Iran’s stock market liquidity

This research studies the companies’ effectiveness and performance relationship with stock market liquidity in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2010-2015. Simultaneously, in the study, the three indicators: return on assets, return on investment and Tobin's Q ratio were applied as a measure of the performance and bid-ask spread as a measure of liquidity, bid-ask spread to the stock market. This research has a practical purpose and descriptive correlation in research nature and also post-event research. The under study population comprises all companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange during the intended period, 198 companies selected with systematic elimination sampling to be studied and analyzed. The results show a positive and significant association between companies’ performance and Stock market liquidity.
Cell Type-specific Localization of Human Cardiac S1P Receptors

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), which derives from the metabolism of sphingomyelin, is mainly synthesized, stored, and released from platelets after activation by physiological and pathophysiological events. S1P acts in cardiovascular tissues through cell surface G-protein-coupled receptors of the endothelial differentiation gene (EDG) family, i.e., EDG1, EDG3 and EDG5. The aim of the present study was to assess the precise distribution of EDG1, EDG3, and EDG5 receptors expressed in human cardiovascular tissues to investigate their respective physiological implication. When assessed by Northern blots, EDG1, EDG3, and EDG5 displayed wide expression levels in decreasing order, respectively. In particular, EDG3 was mainly detected in the aorta. Detailed analysis by in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) revealed strong EDG1 expression in cardiomyocytes and in endothelial cells of cardiac vessels. In cardiomyocytes, the EDG1 receptor is likely to be co-expressed with EDG3 and EDG5, although EDG1 exhibits the most prominent expression pattern. Unlike EDG3 and EDG5, which are expressed in the smooth muscle cell layer of the human aorta, no signal corresponding to EDG1 expression could be detected in the aorta. Moreover, only EDG3 expression was also found in smooth muscle cells of cardiac vessels. The present results provide new insight into the expression pattern of S1P receptors in human cardiovascular tissues, indicating a differential pattern of expression for these receptors in human vessels.
African Swine Fever Virus Protease, a New Viral Member of the SUMO-1-specific Protease Family*

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a complex DNA virus that employs polyprotein processing at Gly-Gly-Xaa sites as a strategy to produce several major core components of the viral particle. The virus gene S273R encodes a 31-kDa protein that contains a “core domain” with the conserved catalytic residues characteristic of SUMO-1-specific proteases and the adenovirus protease. Using a COS cell expression system, it was found that protein pS273R is capable of cleaving the viral polyproteins pp62 and pp220 in a specific way giving rise to the same intermediates and mature products as those produced in ASFV-infected cells. Furthermore, protein pS273R, like adenovirus protease and SUMO-1-specific enzymes, is a cysteine protease, because its activity is abolished by mutation of the predicted catalytic histidine and cysteine residues and is inhibited by sulfhydryl-blocking reagents. Protein pS273R is expressed late after infection and is localized in the cytoplasmic viral factories, where it is found associated with virus precursors and mature virions. In the virions, the protein is present in the core shell, a domain where the products of the viral polyproteins are also located. The identification of the ASFV protease will allow a better understanding of the role of polyprotein processing in virus assembly and may contribute to our knowledge of the emerging family of SUMO-1-specific proteases.
Molecular characterization of murine and human OX40/OX40 ligand systems: identification of a human OX40 ligand as the HTLV‐1‐regulated protein gp34.

A ligand was cloned for murine OX40, a member of the TNF receptor family, using a T cell lymphoma cDNA library. The ligand (muOX40L) is a type II membrane protein with significant identity to human gp34 (gp34), a protein whose expression on HTLV‐1‐infected human leukemic T cells is regulated by the tax gene. The predicted structures of muOX40L and gp34 are similar to, but more compact than, those of other ligands of the TNF family. Mapping of the muOX40L gene revealed tight linkage to gld, the FasL gene, on chromosome 1. gp34 maps to a homologous region in the human genome, 1q25. cDNAs for human OX40 receptor were cloned by cross‐hybridization with muOX40, and gp34 was found to bind the expressed human receptor. Lymphoid expression of muOX40L was detected on activated T cells, with higher levels found on CD4+ rather than CD8+ cells. The cell‐bound recombinant ligands are biologically active, co‐stimulating T cell proliferation and cytokine production. Strong induction of IL‐4 secretion by muOX40L suggests that this ligand may play a role in regulating immune responses. In addition, the HTLV‐1 regulation of gp34 suggests a possible connection between virally induced pathogenesis and the OX40 system.
Perceptions of Family Members of Children with Cleft Lip and Palate in Hyderabad, India, and Its Rural Outskirts regarding Craniofacial Anomalies: A Pilot Study

Objective This pilot study aimed to understand cultural perspectives on cleft anomalies in the community of Hyderabad, India, and its rural outskirts. Design Interviews focusing on perceptions of cleft lip and palate were conducted using a 21-item interview guide approved by the director of the Gosla Srinivas Reddy Institute of Craniofacial Surgery (GSR). Settings Interviews were conducted at GSR, a specialty surgical center located in Hyderabad, India. Patients and Participants All patients who presented to GSR with either cleft lip, cleft palate, or cleft lip and palate at the time of this study were included. Results Of the 23 families interviewed, 12 mothers believed the cleft was caused by an eclipse, and two believed the scientific explanation their physician offered. Fourteen families were offered no explanation for the cleft lip and/or palate at the time of their first physician visit. No families practiced non-Western methods for treatment of the cleft. One family identified beliefs held in the community that their child with a cleft lip was bad luck. Conclusion A commonly held belief in this community in India is that cleft lip, cleft palate, or cleft lip and palate are caused by an eclipse. Physicians appear to be providing families with insufficient education on cleft impairments. Data generated from studies similar to this can be used to design educational protocols that address this gap in community understanding of orofacial clefting.
The Retirement of a Consumption Puzzle

This paper summarizes five facts that have emerged from the recent literature on consumption behavior during retirement. Collectively, the recent literature has shown that there is no puzzle with respect to the spending patterns of most households as they transition into retirement. In particular, the literature has shown that there is substantial heterogeneity in spending changes at retirement across consumption categories. The declines in spending during retirement for the average household are limited to the categories of food and work related expenses. Spending in nearly all other categories of non-durable expenditure remains constant or increases. Moreover, even though food spending declines during retirement, actual food intake remains constant. The literature also shows that there is substantial heterogeneity across households in the change in expenditure associated with retirement. Much of this heterogeneity, however, can be explained by households involuntarily retiring due to deteriorating health. Overall, the literature shows that the standard model of lifecycle consumption augmented with home production and uncertain health shocks does well in explaining the consumption patterns of most households as they transition into retirement.
Analysis of Disintegration of Planar Liquid Sheet Sandwiched between Gas Streams with Unequal Velocities and Resulting Spray Formation

A temporal stability analysis was carried out for a planar liquid sheet sandwiched between two gas streams moving with unequal velocities. Perturbation analysis was carried out up to second order using the initial amplitude of disturbance of the liquid sheet as the perturbation parameter. Both para-sinuous and para-varicose modes were investigated to determine the dominant break-up mechanism. The nonlinear stability analysis gives the ligament area and the breakup time corresponding to the most unstable wave numbers . Gaster transformation is used to obtain the breakup length from the breakup time. Secondary breakup of the ligament into droplets was modeled following Rayleigh mechanism. Droplet size and velocity distributions were predicted using Maximum Entropy Formulation (MEF). The results show that the asymmetry in the gas velocity significantly affects both the first order and the second order results. The range of unstable wavelengths, the maximum growth rate, the breakup length and the mean droplet diameters were found to be determined through a complex interaction of the gas phase velocities and their differences. It is found that increase in difference the gas velocities on two sides of the liquid sheet leads to a significantly narrower droplet size distribution though the velocity distribution is less affected.
Workplace building design and office‐based workers' activity: a study of a natural experiment

Objective: This opportunistic natural study investigated the effects of relocation of office workers from a 30‐year‐old building to a new purpose‐built building. The new building included an attractive central staircase that was easily accessed and negotiated, as well as breakout spaces and a centralised facilities area. The researchers aimed to determine the impact of the purpose‐built office building on the office workers' sedentariness and level of physical activity.