Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Live cell imaging shows reversible assembly of the TatA component of the twin-arginine protein transport system

Significance The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway transports folded proteins across a membrane without significant ion leakage. The mechanism by which Tat is able to carry out this challenging feat is unclear. We used direct imaging of fluorescent protein-tagged Tat components in bacterial cells to show that the TatA element of the Tat system undergoes substrate- and proton motive force-dependent oligomerization. Thus the Tat transporter element is assembled on demand, avoiding the need to seal the transporter between translocation events. The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) machinery transports folded proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria and the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts. It has been inferred that the Tat translocation site is assembled on demand by substrate-induced association of the protein TatA. We tested this model by imaging YFP-tagged TatA expressed at native levels in living Escherichia coli cells in the presence of low levels of the TatA paralogue TatE. Under these conditions the TatA-YFP fusion supports full physiological Tat transport activity. In agreement with the TatA association model, raising the number of transport-competent substrate proteins within the cell leads to an increase in the number of large TatA complexes present. Formation of these complexes requires both a functional TatBC substrate receptor and the transmembrane proton motive force (PMF). Removing the PMF causes TatA complexes to dissociate, except in strains with impaired Tat transport activity. Based on these observations we propose that TatA assembly reaches a critical point at which oligomerization can be reversed only by substrate transport. In contrast to TatA-YFP, the oligomeric states of TatB-YFP and TatC-YFP fusions are not affected by substrate or the PMF, although TatB-YFP oligomerization does require TatC.
Migration and stress during reproduction govern telomere dynamics in a seabird

Changes in telomere length are believed to reflect changes in physiological state and life expectancy in animals. However, much remains unknown about the determinants of telomere dynamics in wild populations, and specifically the influence of conditions during highly mobile life-history stages, for example migration. We tested whether telomere dynamics were associated with migratory behaviour and/or with stress during reproduction in free-living seabirds. We induced short-term stress during reproduction in chick-rearing, black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), tracked winter migration with geolocators and measured telomere length before and after winter migration. We found that time spent at wintering grounds correlated with reduced telomere loss, while stress during reproduction accelerated telomere shortening. Our results suggest that different life-history stages interact to influence telomere length, and that migratory patterns may be important determinants of variation in an individual's telomere dynamics.
Use of Brucella abortus species specific polymerase chain reaction assay for the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis

Serology is primarily used in the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis. Bacterial culture and isolation is the gold standard in diagnosing brucellosis but, like serology, it does not offer complete (100%) diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been suggested to offer better specificity and sensitivity. In this study, we evaluated the performance of Brucella abortus species specific (BaSS) PCR directly from different samples in the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis in naturally infected cattle in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa with known infectious status from culture. The BaSS PCR had a low diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) of 70%, but was able to identify vaccine strains using abomasal fluid from aborted foetuses and detect Brucella DNA from decomposing samples. The best sample for the BaSS PCR was abomasal fluid.
An ecological perspective of writing: Teachers, peers, and authors as resources in a response-based classroom

The present study examines the ways in which the available resources of books, classmates, and teacher affect three fourth-grade students' writing development within the same classroom. The study's unique contribution is its holistic description of how all three resources contribute collectively to the ongoing writing of these individuals over the better part of their school year. The study describes the ways in which the children's writing and their notions of good writing are being formed in the dialectical processes of interaction with these resources. Further, the study describes the global traits of their particular classroom's culture--its extant written forms and literacy contexts of interaction--in order to understand more fully the effects of the social context on the individuals. Data were collected using a variety of techniques of ethnographic inquiry: field observation notes, formal and informal interviews, audio-recordings of classroom literacy events, and the writing of the case study children as well as that of their classmates. Data were analyzed by using ethnographic tools of analysis: data categorization, data triangulation, as well as through exploratory writing. Major conclusions include: (1) the extant written forms and contexts constrained as well as multiplied the choices the children made for learning about writing; (2) the ways these children "read" and "took" from the classroom resources were both a function of who they were as individuals--their literacy development, personalities, and proclivities--and of what the classroom offered; and (3) the resources overlapped to strengthen their power to influence the case study children's writing.
Build your own music recommender by modeling internet radio streams

In the Internet music scene, where recommendation technology is key for navigating huge collections, large market players enjoy a considerable advantage. Accessing a wider pool of user feedback leads to an increasingly more accurate analysis of user tastes, effectively creating a "rich get richer" effect. This work aims at significantly lowering the entry barrier for creating music recommenders, through a paradigm coupling a public data source and a new collaborative filtering (CF) model. We claim that Internet radio stations form a readily available resource of abundant fresh human signals on music through their playlists, which are essentially cohesive sets of related tracks. In a way, our models rely on the knowledge of a diverse group of experts in lieu of the commonly used wisdom of crowds. Over several weeks, we aggregated publicly available playlists of thousands of Internet radio stations, resulting in a dataset encompassing millions of plays, and hundreds of thousands of tracks and artists. This provides the large scale ground data necessary to mitigate the cold start problem of new items at both mature and emerging services. Furthermore, we developed a new probabilistic CF model, tailored to the Internet radio resource. The success of the model was empirically validated on the collected dataset. Moreover, we tested the model at a cross-source transfer learning manner -- the same model trained on the Internet radio data was used to predict behavior of Yahoo! Music users. This demonstrates the ability to tap the Internet radio signals in other music recommendation setups. Based on encouraging empirical results, our hope is that the proposed paradigm will make quality music recommendation accessible to all interested parties in the community.
The career impacts of women managing women

Our study examines the interconnection between women’s workplace hierarchical relationships and their career decisions using relational cultural theory (RCT) and the kaleidoscope career model (KCM). The findings suggest that the quality of these relationships directly and indirectly affect women’s careers, particularly when the relationship is perceived as negative. This research critiques and extends the KCM by adding an important relational component. Balance is extended to include the impact women’s hierarchical relationships have on personal and family wellbeing, particularly where it is viewed as negative, disempowering and lacking in mutuality. Challenge is extended to include the additional demands presented by a negative hierarchical relationship, along with the opportunity it provides for learning and growth. Our research makes the case for greater personal and organisational awareness of the connection between women’s hierarchical relationships and potential career impacts as one mechanism to support the careers of women.
Home-based smoking prevention program Smoke-free Kids on smoking-related cognitions: Secondary outcomes from a cluster randomized controlled trial

Objectives: The home-based smoking prevention programme ‘Smoke-free Kids’ did not have an effect on primary outcome smoking initiation. A possible explanation may be that the programme has a delayed effect. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on the development of important precursors of smoking: smoking-related cognitions. Methods: We used a cluster randomised controlled trial in 9- to 11-year-old children and their mothers. The intervention condition received five activity modules, including a communication sheet for mothers, by mail at four-week intervals. The control condition received a fact-based programme. Secondary outcomes were attitudes, self-efficacy and social norms. Latent growth curves analyses were used to calculate the development of cognitions over time. Subsequently, path modelling was used to estimate the programme effects on the initial level and growth of each cognition. Results: Analyses were performed on 1398 never-smoking children at baseline. Results showed that for children in the intervention condition, perceived maternal norms increased less strongly as compared to the control condition (β = −.10, p = .03). No effects were found for the other cognitions. Conclusion: Based on the limited effects, we do not assume that the programme will have a delayed effect on smoking behaviour later during adolescence.
Analysis of p53/BAX in primary colorectal carcinoma: Low BAX protein expression is a negative prognostic factor in UICC stage III tumors

Deregulation of cell death pathways contributes to tumor development and to the clinical course of cancer disease. In patients with liver metastases of colorectal cancer, we have previously shown that an intact p53/BAX apoptotic pathway is a positive prognostic factor. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to determine the prognostic value of BAX protein expression and the mutational status of its upstream regulator p53 in primary colorectal adenocarcinoma. To this end, we analyzed retrospectively tumor samples of 116 patients who underwent surgery for colorectal adenocarcinoma and had a follow‐up for a minimum of 5 years or until death (UICC Stage III: 59 patients, UICC Stage IV: 57 patients). Tumors were screened for p53 mutations and investigated for BAX protein expression. Overall median survival was 17 months. As expected, patients with UICC III tumors survived longer than patients with UICC IV tumors: 69 months vs. 8 months (p < 0.0001). UICC III tumors with high BAX expression were associated with a significantly better prognosis (p = 0.009) than BAX low expressing tumors. The combined p53/BAX pathway analysis for the UICC Stage III group revealed the worst outcome for patients with a disrupted p53/BAX pathway (i.e., BAX low/p53 mutated; p = 0.004). In contrast, no significant effect of the p53/BAX status on survival was found in UICC IV tumors. Our study in primary adenocarcinoma of the colorectum shows for the first time that a disrupted p53/BAX pathway is associated with a poor clinical outcome in UICC III tumors. These data also confirm our previous report on the relevance of an intact p53/BAX pathway in liver metastasis of colorectal cancer. Nevertheless, we were not able to confirm this finding in the heterogenous subgroup of UICC IV tumors of the colorectum. Our study therefore provides the basis for the analysis of defects in p53/BAX (and additional genes) in a prospective trial that is the logical basis for future risk‐adapted therapies. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Kava hepatotoxicity: pathogenetic aspects and prospective considerations

Kava hepatotoxicity is a well‐defined herb‐induced liver injury, caused by the use of commercial anxyolytic ethanolic and acetonic kava extracts, and of traditional recreational aqueous kava extracts. The aim of this review is to elucidate possible pathogenetic factors for the development of kava‐induced liver injury, considering also confounding variables. In patients with liver disease in a causal relation to kava ± comedication, confounding factors include non‐adherence to therapy recommendations and comedication consisting of synthetic and herbal drugs and dietary supplements including herbal ones and herbs–kava mixtures. Various possible pathogenetic factors have to be discussed and comprise metabolic interactions with exogenous compounds at the hepatic microsomal cytochrome P450 level; genetic enzyme deficiencies; toxic constituents and metabolites derived from the kava extract including impurities and adulterations; cyclooxygenase inhibition; P‐glycoprotein alterations; hepatic glutathione depletion; solvents and solubilizers of the extracts; and kava raw material of poor quality. In particular, inappropriate kava plant parts and unsuitable kava cultivars may have been used sometimes for manufacturing the kava extracts instead of the rhizome of a noble cultivar of the kava plant (Piper methysticum G. Forster). In conclusion, kava hepatotoxicity occurred independently of the extraction medium used for the kava extracts and may primarily be attributed to daily overdose, prolonged treatment and to a few kava extract batches of poor quality; by improving kava quality and adherence to therapy recommendation under avoidance of comedication, liver injury by kava should be a preventable disease, at least to a major extent.
Cluster-Based Multicast Transmission for Device-to-Device (D2D) Communication

The development of the storage capacity and electricity of handheld devices makes it possible to share multimedia data (e.g. video) through Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. In this paper, we present a cluster-based multicast transmission method for D2D communication with the target of decreasing the data distribution time. We consider the users who store multimedia data serve as cluster head (CH) and distribute data to the users around them in D2D multicast mode. The CHs and users in the system compose different clusters and there is only one CH in a cluster. We derive out outage capacity of a single cluster and establish a clustering selection model for the whole system. Since the clustering selection is a non-convex problem, we propose a practical clustering strategy with theoretical analysis using game theory. Simulation results show that the clustering strategy lowers the average transmission time effectively and applies to the situation of high user density.
Branch Standards as the Method of Optimizing of Capital Structure

This article is about the problem of optimizing of the capital structure of the concrete firm and about the possibility to use the passive way of optimizing of this capital structure on the basis of the so-called branch standards. Branch standards are defined as some average indebtedness that the firms are trying to follow. There are a lot of theories available, but the final process of optimizing of the capital structure of the concrete firm is very complicated and it is necessary to cope with a lot of application problems. Besides traditional theory, none of the further theories offer some concrete recommended optimal indebtedness. For that reason, the possibility to optimize the capital structure based on the passive way is represented besides other things by the so-called branch standards. The aim of this article is to judge if it is possible to identify this average indebtedness in different branches and in different countries and continue in the previous researches of the author. The hypothesis was stated that it is possible only in selected branches in selected countries as it was stated also in previous researches of the author. The research is realized in the five selected branches, Pharmacy, Furniture Production, Wood (Forest) Production, Water Supply, and Air Transport in the Czech Republic and in the USA. Data for the years 2008-2016 were obtained from the system Albertina Data at the University of Economics in Prague and from web pages of Prof. Aswath Damodaran in the USA. There were identified so-called branch standards in the Czech Republic for the branch Pharmacy with the indebtedness (45%), Furniture Production with the indebtedness (54%), Water Supply with the indebtedness (30-35%), Wood (Forest) Products with the indebtedness (40%), and Air Transport with the indebtedness (70-75%). There are also identified so-called branch standards in the USA for the branches Pharmacy 34%, Furniture Production 40% and Water Supply 50%–55%. The values were verified by the data for the year 2016 and the so-called branch standards were confirmed excluding the branch Air Transport in the Czech Republic and for the branch Water Supply in the USA. The branches Pharmacy and Furniture Production show small differences.
Targeted Disruption of the ATP2A1 Gene Encoding the Sarco(endo)plasmic Reticulum Ca2+ ATPase Isoform 1 (SERCA1) Impairs Diaphragm Function and Is Lethal in Neonatal Mice*

Mutations in the ATP2A1 gene, encoding isoform 1 of the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA1), are one cause of Brody disease, characterized in humans by exercise-induced contraction of fast twitch (type II) skeletal muscle fibers. In an attempt to create a model for Brody disease, the mouse ATP2A1 gene was targeted to generate a SERCA1-null mutant mouse line. In contrast to humans, term SERCA1-null mice had progressive cyanosis and gasping respiration and succumbed from respiratory failure shortly after birth. The percentage of affected homozygote SERCA1−/− mice was consistent with predicted Mendelian inheritance. A survey of multiple organs from 10-, 15-, and 18-day embryos revealed no morphological abnormalities, but analysis of the lungs in term mice revealed diffuse congestion and epithelial hypercellularity and studies of the diaphragm muscle revealed prominent hypercontracted regions in scattered fibers and increased fiber size variability. The V maxof Ca2+ transport activity in mutant diaphragm and skeletal muscle was reduced by 80% compared with wild-type muscle, and the contractile response to electrical stimulation under physiological conditions was reduced dramatically in mutant diaphragm muscle. No compensatory responses were detected in analysis of mRNAs encoding other Ca2+ handling proteins or of protein levels. Expression of ATP2A1 is largely restricted to type II fibers, which predominate in normal mouse diaphragm. The absence of SERCA1 in type II fibers, and the absence of compensatory increases in other Ca2+ handling proteins, coupled with the marked increase in contractile function required of the diaphragm muscle to support postnatal respiration, can account for respiratory failure in term SERCA1-null mice.
The structural basis for biphasic kinetics in the folding of the WW domain from a formin-binding protein: Lessons for protein design?

The mechanism of formation of β-sheets is of great importance because of the significant role of such structures in the initiation and propagation of amyloid diseases. In this study we examine the folding of a series of three-stranded antiparallel β-sheets known as WW domains. Whereas other WW domains have been shown to fold with single-exponential kinetics, the WW domain from murine formin-binding protein 28 has recently been shown to fold with biphasic kinetics. By using a combination of kinetics and thermodynamics to characterize a simple model for this protein, the origins of the biphasic kinetics is found to lie in the fact that most of the protein is able to fold without requiring one of the β-hairpins to be correctly registered. The correct register of this hairpin is enforced by a surface-exposed hydrophobic contact, which is not present in other WW domains. This finding suggests the use of judiciously chosen surface-exposed hydrophobic pairs as a protein design strategy for enforcing the desired strand registry.
Transcranial Magnetic Resonance Imaging– Guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery of Brain Tumors: Initial Findings in 3 Patients

OBJECTIVEThis work evaluated the clinical feasibility of transcranial magnetic resonance imaging–guided focused ultrasound surgery. METHODSTranscranial magnetic resonance imaging–guided focused ultrasound surgery offers a potential noninvasive alternative to surgical resection. The method combines a hemispherical phased-array transducer and patient-specific treatment planning based on acoustic models with feedback control based on magnetic resonance temperature imaging to overcome the effects of the cranium and allow for controlled and precise thermal ablation in the brain. In initial trials in 3 glioblastoma patients, multiple focused ultrasound exposures were applied up to the maximum acoustic power available. Offline analysis of the magnetic resonance temperature images evaluated the temperature changes at the focus and brain surface. RESULTSWe found that it was possible to focus an ultrasound beam transcranially into the brain and to visualize the heating with magnetic resonance temperature imaging. Although we were limited by the device power available at the time and thus seemed to not achieve thermal coagulation, extrapolation of the temperature measurements at the focus and on the brain surface suggests that thermal ablation will be possible with this device without overheating the brain surface, with some possible limitation on the treatment envelope. CONCLUSIONAlthough significant hurdles remain, these findings are a major step forward in producing a completely noninvasive alternative to surgical resection for brain disorders.
An examination of stock market herding behavior with different market maturity

Abstract While herding behavior in financial markets has been widely examined, the comparison of cross-market herding, unfortunately, has not been satisfactorily addressed. In this study, we focus on stocks listed in the same market but with different registration nationality, and thus are able to measure and compare investors’ herding behavior across markets with consistency. In particular, we follow Hwang & Salmon (2004) and employ high frequency daily cross-sectional dispersion of individual stock β coefficients as our measure of irrational herding. Ultimately, our study finds that investors’ herding tendency increases as the maturity level of investment portfolio decreases.