Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chromosome Segregation Impacts on Cell Growth and Division Site Selection in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Spatial and temporal regulation of bacterial cell division is imperative for the production of viable offspring. In many rod-shaped bacteria, regulatory systems such as the Min system and nucleoid occlusion ensure the high fidelity of midcell divisome positioning. However, regulation of division site selection in bacteria lacking recognizable Min and nucleoid occlusion remains less well understood. Here, we describe one such rod-shaped organism, Corynebacterium glutamicum, which does not always place the division septum precisely at midcell. Here we now show at single cell level that cell growth and division site selection are spatially and temporally regulated by chromosome segregation. Mutants defective in chromosome segregation have more variable cell growth and aberrant placement of the division site. In these mutants, division septa constrict over and often guillotine the nucleoid, leading to nonviable, DNA-free cells. Our results suggest that chromosome segregation or some nucleoid associated factor influences growth and division site selection in C. glutamicum. Understanding growth and regulation of C. glutamicum cells will also be of importance to develop strains for industrial production of biomolecules, such as amino acids.
Biochemical characterization of membrane‐associated septin from rat brain

Within the cell membrane there exist various microdomains (lipid rafts) in which specific lipids and proteins are assembled and these microdomains are recovered in the detergent‐resistant low‐density membrane fraction (DRM). Septin is a novel GTP‐binding, cytoskeletal protein having various isoforms that assemble into homo‐ and heterooligomers and filaments. As the localization of septin 3 in DRM was found through a proteomics analysis of brain‐derived DRM, the presence of other septin isoforms in DRM was studied. Western blotting analysis showed maturation‐dependent enrichment of several septin isoforms in DRM prepared from synaptic plasma membrane (SPM). These isoforms were solubilized with high MgCl2 solution and recovered as the precipitate after dialysis to low ionic solution. Three times cycling of the extraction‐dialysis process resulted in the partial purification of septin complex and electron microscopic observation of this fraction revealed rod‐like structures in which building units were observed. The presence of heterooligomers was shown with western blotting after the separation of the MgCl2 extract with blue‐native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Immunoprecipitation assay using monoclonal anti‐septin11 antibody also showed the presence of heterooligomers. These results show that septin localizes in the membrane microdomains of the SPM in adult brain and may have important roles in the membrane dynamics of neurons.
'Living a life less ordinary': exploring the experiences of Australian men who have acquired HIV overseas.

UNLABELLED Background Increasing international mobility has led to a growth of cross-border HIV transmission around the world. In Australia, increasing rates of HIV infections acquired overseas have been reported, particularly among men. This qualitative study explored experiences and risk perceptions of 14 Australian men who acquired HIV while living or travelling overseas from the year 2000. METHODS Symbolic interaction provided the study's theoretical perspective and analytical framework. Australian men living with HIV who were aged 18 years and older, believed they had acquired their infection while working or travelling overseas during or after the year 2000, and were diagnosed from 2003 onwards were eligible to participate. A semistructured interview schedule was developed and tested for content validity with the study reference group. Analysis was conducted using an adapted form of grounded theory to form the basis for the development of the experiences domains. RESULTS Analysis produced four domains of experience: (1) a fantasy realised, (2) escaping and finding a new self or life, (3) living a life less ordinary and (4) living local but still an outsider. The description of the four experience domains highlights how risk generally, particularly sexual risk, did or did not feature in these men's understanding of their experiences. CONCLUSION Perceptions and experiences of long-term travel played a decisive role for men who acquired HIV when travelling overseas. Appealing to desired experiences such as connection to local culture or sustaining a new or adventurous life may provide important implications for guiding health promotion programs and policy.
Assembly of smooth muscle myosin into side-polar filaments

The in vitro assembly of myosin purified from calf aorta muscle has been studied by electron microscopy. Two types of filament are formed: short bipolar filament similar to those formed from skeletal muscle myosin, and longer "side-polar" filaments having cross bridges with a single polarity along the entire length of one side and the opposite polarity along the other side. Unlike the case with skeletal myosin filaments, antiparallel interactions between myosin molecules occur along the whole length of side-polar filaments. The side-polar structure may be related to the in vivo form of myosin in vertebrate smooth muscle.
Relationship between Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Inflammatory Markers in Sickle Cell Anaemia Patients with Proteinuria

The renal functions and structure in sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients may be affected by chronic haemodynamic changes and consequences of vaso-occlusive events in the renal medulla. Few reports on neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR) ratios in SCA patients in Africans exist in the literature. This study correlates the values of NLR and PLR with measured traditional inflammatory markers in SCA patients with and without proteinuria and impaired kidney function (defined in this study as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Full blood count, C-reactive protein (CRP), and fibrinogen were assayed in 150 SCA patients and 50 control subjects using Coulter Haematology analyser (CELL DYE 37000) and ELISA method, respectively. The NLR and PLR were calculated by dividing absolute neutrophil or platelet counts by absolute lymphocyte count. Fibrinogen, CRP, NLR, and PLR increased progressively (p < 0.001) in SCA patients with or without proteinuria, with the highest values seen in those with impaired renal function. NLR correlated positively with CRP and fibrinogen in SCA patients without proteinuria (p < 0.001), with proteinuria (p < 0.001), and impaired renal function (p < 0.05). A positive relationship was also observed between NLR and fibrinogen in the control subjects. The need to determine cut-off values for these leukocyte ratios to be used in identifying those patients at risk and in the general management of SCA patients is suggested.
Robust interference suppression and blind speech beamforming in room reverberant environments

In a microphone array system where references of interference are additionally available, the unwanted signals in the received signals can be removed using Widrow's interference-cancelling (IC) approach. However, in the presence of crosstalk, IC can result in severe cancellation of the desired speech signal. In this paper, we propose a crosstalk-resistant method for joint interference suppression and blind speech signal beamforming. The proposed method is based on the Capon blind estimation principle, and is implemented using a powerful approximation tool, namely semidefinite relaxation. Simulation results show that the proposed method yields improved mean squared error performance compared with the IC-based method.
DQFS service: a tunable scheme to reduce scheduling overhead in integrated services networks

Discrete service disciplines have been shown capable of emulating the ideal Generalized Processor Sharing discipline within one maximum-sized packet's transmission time. As a result, the accuracy of such schemes increases with improvements in link speed due to the corresponding reduction in packet transmission delay. However, the merits of such accuracy diminish with improvements in link speed as its impact on call admission decisions decreases. Meanwhile, overhead, in terms of the number of scheduling decisions to be made per unit time, increases with the number of packets transmitted. In response, this paper will present the DQFS service discipline which enables GPS emulation servers to dynamically "tune" their service quanta based upon the QoS requirements of their currently supported applications rather than the network's maximal packet size. It will also demonstrate how the overhead of a GPS emulation server can be reduced in high speed networks without jeopardizing QoS guarantees or adversely impacting fairness.
Performance/Availability Model of Shared Resource Multiprocessors

Shared-resource systems are particularly vulnerable to faults which contaminate the shared-resource, and result eventually in system failure. In shared-memory computer systems, resource guardians can provide some protection. A model is developed which incorporates both a performance and availability measure of a general gracefully-degradable shared-resource multiprocessor. Various system parameters are studied and their effects are compared on the basis of a performance/cost ratio. As the number of processors increases or as the reliability of a processor or memory module decreases, some resource protection becomes neccessary. There is a class of systems for which adding resource protection provides no measurable benefit.
Ectopic Myf5 or MyoD prevents the neuronal differentiation program in addition to inducing skeletal muscle differentiation, in the chick neural tube

Forced expression of the bHLH myogenic factors, Myf5 and MyoD, in various mammalian cell lines induces the full program of myogenic differentiation. However, this property has not been extensively explored in vivo. We have taken advantage of the chick model to investigate the effect of electroporation of the mouse Myf5 and MyoD genes in the embryonic neural tube. We found that misexpression of either mouse Myf5 or MyoD in the chick neural tube leads to ectopic skeletal muscle differentiation, assayed by the expression of the myosin heavy chains in the neural tube and neural crest derivatives. We also showed that the endogenous neuronal differentiation program is inhibited under the influence of either ectopic mouse Myf5 or MyoD. We used this new system to analyse, in vivo, the transcriptional regulation between the myogenic factors. We found that MyoD and Myogenin expression can be activated by ectopic mouse Myf5 or MyoD, while Myf5 expression cannot be activated either by mouse MyoD or by itself. We also analysed the transcriptional regulation between the myogenic factors and the different genes involved in myogenesis, such as Mef2c, Pax3, Paraxis, Six1, Mox1, Mox2 and FgfR4. We established the existence of an unexpected regulatory loop between MyoD and FgfR4. The consequences for myogenesis are discussed.
Software inspection benchmarking-a qualitative and quantitative comparative opportunity

Software inspections are commonly used throughout the software industry, but there are still open questions about the relationship between inspection processes and inspection effectiveness. For example, which techniques work best in various environments? Are requirements specifications inspections and code inspections different in terms of effectiveness? What is the effectiveness in inspections for different group sizes? Benchmarking provides an opportunity to address such issues. This paper discusses how benchmarking may be applied for software inspections. The discussion is illustrated with an empirical study. It is shown how the data can be used to plan and manage software inspections. It is concluded that software inspections are well suited for benchmarking and that software practitioners as well as researchers can learn valuable lessons.
A Protocol for Supporting Context Provision in Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The increasing ubiquity of mobile computing devices has made ad hoc networks everyday occurrences. In these highly dynamic environments, the multitude of devices provides a varied and rapidly changing environment in which applications must learn to operate. Successful end-user applications will not only learn to function in this environment but will take advantage of the variety of information available. Protocols for gathering an application’s contextual information must be built into the network to function in a timely and adaptive fashion. This paper presents a protocol for providing context information to such applications. We present an implementation and show how it provides context information to mobile applications in an ondemand manner. We also provide a simulation analysis of the tradeoffs between consistency and range of context definitions in highly dynamic ad hoc networks.
Analysis of the Capsule Biosynthetic Locus ofMannheimia (Pasteurella)haemolytica A1 and Proposal of a Nomenclature System

ABSTRACT A 16-kbp DNA region that contains genes involved in the biosynthesis of the capsule of Mannheimia(Pasteurella) haemolytica A1 has been characterized. The gene cluster can be divided into three regions like those of the typical group II capsule biosynthetic clusters in gram-negative bacteria. Region 1 contains four genes (wzt, wzm, wzf, andwza) which code for an ATP-binding cassette transport apparatus for the secretion of the capsule materials across the membranes. The M. haemolytica A1 wzt andwzm genes were able to complement Escherichia coli kpsT and kpsM mutants, respectively. Further, the ATP binding activity of Wzt was demonstrated by its affinity for ATP-agarose, and the lipoprotein nature of Wza was supported by [3H]palmitate labeling. Region 2 contains six genes; four genes (orf1/2/3/4) code for unique functions for which no homologues have been identified to date. The remaining two genes (nmaA andnmaB) code for homologues of UDP–N-acetylglucosamine-2-epimerase and UDP–N-acetylmannosamine dehydrogenase, respectively. These two proteins are highly homologous to the E. coliWecB and WecC proteins (formerly known as RffE and RffD), which are involved in the biosynthesis of enterobacterial common antigen (ECA). Complementation of an E. coli rffE/D mutant with theM. haemolytica A1 nmaA/B genes resulted in the restoration of ECA biosynthesis. Region 3 contains two genes (wbrA and wbrB) which are suggested to be involved in the phospholipid modification of capsular materials.
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting: decreased survival for patients with high APACHE II scores.

OBJECTIVES To determine which clinical characteristics are associated with decreased survival after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunting (TIPS). METHODS Forty-nine consecutive patients were treated with TIPS; 46 of them had refractory variceal bleeding. Univariate statistics and logistic regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between clinical, biochemical, and hemodynamic variables and 30-day) survival. RESULTS Shunt insertion was successful in 48 (98.0%) of 49 cases. Median portal-systemic gradient was reduced from 22.5 (range 9-36) [median (5th-95th percentile)] to 12 (range 4-20) mm Hg. Thirty (61.2%) of 49 patients survived more than 30 days; four patients died more than 30 days after TIPS in mean follow-up of 8.4 months. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between those who survived more than 30 days and those who did not, with respect to preprocedural prothrombin time, bilirubin, albumin, alanine aminotransferase, and treatment with vasopressin and nitrates, balloon tamponade, or mechanical ventilation. Whereas there were no significant differences between the pre- and post-TIPS portal vein pressures and portal-systemic gradients in survivors and non-survivors, the pre- and post-TIPS hepatic vein pressures were significantly lower in survivors. Survival was inversely proportional to Child-Pugh class (p < 0.01) and to APACHE II score (p < 0.01). The single determinant most closely associated with decreased survival in the month after TIPS was the APACHE II score, a score of 18 stratifying patients into those at low and high risk of mortality [odds ratio 21.7 (CI 3.6-131.7)]. Only 1 (7.7%) of 13 patients with Child-Pugh C cirrhosis and an APACHE II score exceeding 18 survived more than 30 days. CONCLUSIONS Patients with advanced cirrhosis, especially those with high pre-TIPS APACHE II scores, are at high risk for reduced survival after TIPS, despite adequate portal decompression.
Declarative visitors to ease fine-grained source code mining with full history on billions of AST nodes

Software repositories contain a vast wealth of information about software development. Mining these repositories has proven useful for detecting patterns in software development, testing hypotheses for new software engineering approaches, etc. Specifically, mining source code has yielded significant insights into software development artifacts and processes. Unfortunately, mining source code at a large-scale remains a difficult task. Previous approaches had to either limit the scope of the projects studied, limit the scope of the mining task to be more coarse-grained, or sacrifice studying the history of the code due to both human and computational scalability issues. In this paper we address the substantial challenges of mining source code: a) at a very large scale; b) at a fine-grained level of detail; and c) with full history information. To address these challenges, we present domain-specific language features for source code mining. Our language features are inspired by object-oriented visitors and provide a default depth-first traversal strategy along with two expressions for defining custom traversals. We provide an implementation of these features in the Boa infrastructure for software repository mining and describe a code generation strategy into Java code. To show the usability of our domain-specific language features, we reproduced over 40 source code mining tasks from two large-scale previous studies in just 2 person-weeks. The resulting code for these tasks show between 2.0x--4.8x reduction in code size. Finally we perform a small controlled experiment to gain insights into how easily mining tasks written using our language features can be understood, with no prior training. We show a substantial number of tasks (77%) were understood by study participants, in about 3 minutes per task.
Student Teachers, Computer Anxiety and Computer Experience

Recent research has demonstrated the debilitating effect of computer anxiety on achievement in computer related learning. As controversy exists over the merits of increasing experience with computers in order to reduce computer anxiety, the effects of increased computing experience on computer anxiety were assessed for students enrolled in a University teacher education course. In addition, other hypothesized correlates of computer anxiety were studied, viz., age, sex, school background, and computer competence. The Computer Anxiety Rating Scale (CARS) was used to measure computer anxiety prior to and at the conclusion of computer training. A control group, not undergoing computer training, was used for comparison purposes. Many of the teacher trainees in this study exhibited a high degree of computer anxiety on a number of key dimensions related to computing. The evidence from this study gives some support to the notion that increased experience leads to a diminution in computer anxiety. However, the high levels of anxiety remaining for some students after treatment suggest that a simplistic belief that increased computer experience alone will reduce computer anxiety is not tenable. The article discusses the issue that initial anxiety and continuing anxiety, after computer training, may be a function of an individual's prior computing experiences, attitudes towards computing, perceptions of self efficacy, and expectations of success associated with computer interaction.
AN EVALAUATION OF HEALTH CARE PERSONNEL EMPLOYED IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF TURKEY IN TERMS OF BUSINESS-FAMILY LIFE CONFLICT

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the understanding of the health care personnel working at Public Health Agency regarding the concept of business-family life conflict and the effects of business-family conflict and family-business conflict, which are the sub-dimensions of this concept, on the said personnel. Material and Method: The study was administered to 147 health care staff members working at Karatay Public Health Center, Meram Public Health Center and Selcuklu Public Health Center, all affiliated with Konya Directorate of Public Health. “The Business-Family Life Conflict Scale”, which was developed by Netenmeyer, Boles and McMurrian (1996), was used to collect the research data. Cronbach Alpha coefficient calculated for the overall reliability of the scale was calculated to be 0,65 (p=0,000<0,05). In the data analysis stage, frequency analysis was used for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis was used to determine the reliability of the scale, t-test was used for two-way comparisons of the scale and one way anova test was used for multiple group analyses. Findings: It was found that there was a positive correlation between the variable of business-family conflict resulting from the business life of the research participants and the hours an employee spends at work, whereas a negative correlation was identified between the variable of family-business life conflict resulting from family life and the number of children an employee has. The factor analyses made also reveal that these two scales are empirically different from one another. The findings in question indicate that both these scales are powerful in terms of reliability and validity. Conclusion: When the business-family life conflict was compared with demographic factors, it was found to be significantly correlated with many factors. In other words, problems in our business life affect our family life and in turn problems in our family life affect our business life. Measures should be taken on an individual, organizational and national basis to reduce these conflicts to a minimum .
Anisotropic adaptive refinement algorithms for finite element methods

This thesis is on anisotropic adaptive finite element methods for numerical solution of partial differential equations. Adaptive finite element methods place more fine scale elements where more resolution is needed. Isotropic or shape regular adaptive methods use only elements with bounded aspect ratio (stretched elements are avoided). Anisotropic adaptive methods fit high aspect ratio elements (highly stretched elements) along the regions of rapid variation of the solution for situations like shocks or boundary layers. Anisotropic adaptive methods give a bigger saving in terms of computational cost (number of elements and degrees of freedom) than the isotropic ones if stretched elements are placed appropriately. This research is about error estimates and adaptive grid generation allowing the use of anisotropic (stretched) elements. We analyse an error estimator which will be used in the design of anisotropic refinement algorithms. A difference of this estimator with most error estimators is that it estimates the change of the square of the error when a single degree of freedom is introduced to the current approximating space. Another difference is the flexibility in the geometry of meshes allowed by this estimator. All anisotropic refinement algorithm an numerical experiments are presented for an elliptic model problem in two dimensions.