Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early anaerobic metabolisms

Before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis, the biosphere was driven by anaerobic metabolisms. We catalogue and quantify the source strengths of the most probable electron donors and electron acceptors that would have been available to fuel early-Earth ecosystems. The most active ecosystems were probably driven by the cycling of H2 and Fe2+ through primary production conducted by anoxygenic phototrophs. Interesting and dynamic ecosystems would have also been driven by the microbial cycling of sulphur and nitrogen species, but their activity levels were probably not so great. Despite the diversity of potential early ecosystems, rates of primary production in the early-Earth anaerobic biosphere were probably well below those rates observed in the marine environment. We shift our attention to the Earth environment at 3.8 Gyr ago, where the earliest marine sediments are preserved. We calculate, consistent with the carbon isotope record and other considerations of the carbon cycle, that marine rates of primary production at this time were probably an order of magnitude (or more) less than today. We conclude that the flux of reduced species to the Earth surface at this time may have been sufficient to drive anaerobic ecosystems of sufficient activity to be consistent with the carbon isotope record. Conversely, an ecosystem based on oxygenic photosynthesis was also possible with complete removal of the oxygen by reaction with reduced species from the mantle.
A −1 ribosomal frameshift element that requires base pairing across four kilobases suggests a mechanism of regulating ribosome and replicase traffic on a viral RNA

Programmed −1 ribosomal frameshifting is necessary for translation of the polymerase genes of many viruses. In addition to the consensus elements in the mRNA around the frameshift site, we found previously that frameshifting on Barley yellow dwarf virus RNA requires viral sequence located four kilobases downstream. By using dual luciferase reporter constructs, we now show that a predicted loop in the far downstream frameshift element must base pair to a bulge in a bulged stem loop adjacent to the frameshift site. Introduction of either two or six base mismatches in either the bulge or the far downstream loop abolished frameshifting, whereas mutations in both sites that restored base pairing reestablished frameshifting. Likewise, disruption of this base pairing abolished viral RNA replication in plant cells, and restoration of base pairing completely reestablished virus replication. We propose a model in which Barley yellow dwarf virus uses this and another long-distance base-pairing event required for cap-independent translation to allow the replicase copying from the 3′ end to shut off translation of upstream ORFs and free the RNA of ribosomes to allow unimpeded replication. This would be a means of solving the “problem,” common to positive strand RNA viruses, of competition between ribosomes and replicase for the same RNA template.
Almond Consumption during Energy Restriction Lowers Truncal Fat and Blood Pressure in Compliant Overweight or Obese Adults.

BACKGROUND The inclusion of almonds in an energy-restricted diet has been reported both to enhance or to have no effect on weight loss. Their effects specifically on visceral body fat stores during energy restriction have not been widely examined. In addition, almond consumption has been associated with reduced blood pressure (BP), but whether this is linked to or independent of changes in body composition has to our knowledge not been examined. OBJECTIVE We evaluated the effects of consuming almonds as part of an energy-restricted diet on body composition, specifically visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and BP, compared to a nut-free energy-restricted diet. METHODS A randomized controlled 12-wk clinical trial of 86 healthy adults [body mass index (in kg/m2): 25-40] was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 energy-restricted (500-kcal deficit/d) diets: an almond-enriched diet (AED) (15% energy from almonds) or a nut-free diet (NFD). A linear mixed-model analysis on primary outcomes such as body weight, body fat, VAT, and BP was performed on all participants [intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis] and compliant participants (complier analysis). RESULTS Body weight, truncal and total fat percentage, VAT, and systolic BP decreased after 12 wk of energy restriction in both the ITT and complier analyses (P < 0.05). The complier analysis (but not the ITT analysis) indicated a greater mean ± SEM reduction in truncal fat (AED: -1.21% ± 0.26%; NFD: -0.48% ± 0.24%; P = 0.025), total fat (AED: -1.79% ± 0.36%; NFD: -0.74% ± 0.33%; P = 0.035), and diastolic BP (AED: -2.71 ± 1.2 mm Hg; NFD: 0.815 ± 1.1 mm Hg; P = 0.029), and a greater tendency for VAT loss (AED: -8.19 ± 1.8 cm2; NFD: -3.99 ± 1.7 cm2; P = 0.09) over time in the AED group than the NFD group. CONCLUSIONS Moderate almond consumption by compliant overweight and obese individuals during energy restriction results in greater proportional reductions of truncal and total body fat as well as diastolic BP and hence may help to reduce metabolic disease risk in obesity. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02360787.
High multiplexity PCR basedon PCR suppression

We present a protocol for effi cient amplifi cation of a large number of DNA targets using a single-tube polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on PCR suppression. This method allows amplifi cation of each DNA target with only one target-specifi c primer whereas the other primer is common for all targets. Thus, this approach requires n+1 primers for n targets instead of 2n in conventional PCR and substantially reduces the cost and complexity of the assay. The method has been successfully applied for amplifi cation of 30 SNP-related DNA targets from human genomic DNA and for genotyping complex (plant) genomes.
Heterogeneous Returns to Training an Analysis with German Data Using Local Instrumental Variables

Empirical work on the wage impact of training has noted that unobserved heterogeneity of training participants should play a role. The expected return to training, which partly depends on unobservable characteristics, is likely to be a crucial criterion in the decision to take part in training or not. We try to account for this fact by using recent advances in estimating returns to schooling, which allow for selection on unobservables, and apply it to estimating the impact of training on earnings. Allowing heterogeneity to be unobserved by the econometrician, but assuming that individuals may act upon this heterogeneity, completely changes the interpretation and properties of commonly used estimators. Our results based on local instrumental variables suggest that traditional estimates of the wage impact of training overestimate this effect.
A Texture Measure Defined Over Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set Theory for the Detection of Built-Up Areas in High-Resolution SAR Images

Visual interpretation of built-up areas in high-resolution (HR) SAR images usually relies on the strong backscattering behavior and the heterogeneity. The bright pixels characterizing the built-up areas can be easily identified, whereas the built-up pixels appear in medium and low intensity may be missed. The coefficient of variation traditionally provides a way to discriminate heterogeneous and homogeneous regions. The analysis of the statistics of the coefficient of variation on different land cover classes allows us to construct two membership functions (MFs) representing the built-up class and non-built-up class, respectively. Then, each pixel is attached with a membership degree to either of the two classes computed by using the established MFs. At this level, the amplitude of the SAR image is transformed into the intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). The context texture information is specified by the labeled similarity matrix (LSM) computed using the IFSs operators. Since different IFSs operators are used, the proposed technique can be implemented in different ways. The proposed techniques were tested on a collection of 11 images selected from TerraSAR-X images acquired on Nanjing (China) and a COSMO-SkyMed image acquired on Hangzhou (China). By comparison with the existing techniques, the effectiveness of the proposed techniques in identifying and detecting built-up areas was confirmed.
New porcine rotavirus serotype antigenically related to human rotavirus serotype 3

Serotyping of porcine rotaviruses isolated in MA104 cells from Australian piglets with diarrhea showed that two strains belonged to serotype 3 and one strain was antigenically similar to the OSU strain of porcine rotavirus (serotype 5). In addition, neutralizing antibodies to human rotavirus serotype 4 (ST-3 strain) were detected in serum samples from sows in one area, and so it seems probable that porcine rotaviruses of at least three serotypes occur in Australia.
Serious underreporting of visceral leishmaniasis through passive case reporting in Bihar, India

Objectives Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a major public health problem in Bihar, India. Unfortunately, accurate data on the incidence or prevalence of the disease are not available. This longitudinal study was undertaken to determine the incidence of VL in a Community Development Block area of the state of Bihar. Survey results were compared with official reports of the disease to assess the extent of underreporting by the Government health system.
Getting mental health reform back on track: a leadership challenge for the new Australian Government

TO THE EDITOR: In 2004 the Journal published an editorial entitled “Managing allegations of scientifi c misconduct and fraud: lessons from the ‘Hall affair’ ”. 1 The editorial referred to accusations made against Bruce Hall, a professor at the University of New South Wales, which were broadcast by medical journalist Norman Swan on two episodes of the “Science Show”, a weekly program of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Recently, a judgment was entered, with the consent of the ABC and Swan, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in favour of Hall in his defamation case against Swan and the ABC. In addition to removing the broadcast from its website the ABC stated in court that it “regrets any overshadowing of Professor Hall’s major research achievements in immune tolerance and the effects of the broadcasts on his ongoing research”. 2 Now that this judgment has been fi nalised, we believe it is timely, as his peers, to acknowledge the very signifi cant contributions Hall has made to the fi eld of transplantation over the past 30 years.3-5 In doing so we believe it is important to stress that all of these contributions have been validated by other research groups, a process which remains the best available test of scientifi c integrity. We represent 49 senior international and Australian academics and researchers in transplantation and immunology, Getting mental health reform back on track: a leadership challenge for the new Australian Government
The alpha 2-adrenergic receptor gene and body fat content and distribution: the HERITAGE Family Study.

BACKGROUND Among adrenergic receptor subtypes that regulate lipid mobilization, the alpha2-adrenergic receptor is involved in the inhibition of fatty acid mobilization from adipose tissue. A C-1291G polymorphism is located in the alpha2-adrenergic receptor gene (ADRA2A) but no association with body fat accumulation has been reported yet. MATERIALS AND METHODS Body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FAT), percentage body fat (%FAT), trunk-to-extremity skinfold ratio (TER), sum of eight skinfolds (SF8), and abdominal subcutaneous (ASF), visceral (AVF), and total (ATF) fat areas assessed by CT scan have been measured in adult sedentary white (n = 503) and black (n = 276) subjects participating in the HERITAGE Family Study. Association between the C-1291G polymorphism and each phenotype was tested separately in men and women of each race using ANCOVA with the effects of age as covariate in addition to the effects of BMI for TER and of FAT for AVF, ASF, and ATF. RESULTS The allele frequencies of the ADRA2A C-1291G polymorphism differed between races. No association was observed in white subjects, except for a moderate effect of the polymorphism accounting for less than 1% of the variance in AVF and ATF in women. In black subjects, however, the G-1291 allele was found to be associated with an increase of TER in men (3.8% of variance accounted for by the polymorphism), while in black women it was associated with a decrease in TER (2.9%) and in AVF (2.5%). CONCLUSION These results suggest a role for the ADRA2A gene in determining the propensity to store fat in the abdominal area, independently of total body fatness.
Predict Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Subcellular Localization via Incorporating Evolutionary Information and Physicochemical Features Into Chou's General PseAAC

In this study, we used structural and evolutionary based features to represent the sequences of gram-positive and gram-negative subcellular localizations. To do this, we proposed a normalization method to construct a normalize Position Specific Scoring Matrix (PSSM) using the information from original PSSM. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method we compute feature vectors from normalize PSSM and by applying support vector machine (SVM) and naïve Bayes classifier, respectively, we compared achieved results with the previously reported results. We also computed features from original PSSM and normalized PSSM and compared their results. The archived results show enhancement in gram-positive and gram-negative subcellular localizations. Evaluating localization for each feature, our results indicate that employing SVM and concatenating features (amino acid composition feature, Dubchak feature (physicochemical-based features), normalized PSSM based auto-covariance feature and normalized PSSM based bigram feature) have higher accuracy while employing naïve Bayes classifier with normalized PSSM based auto-covariance feature proves to have high sensitivity for both benchmarks. Our reported results in terms of overall locative accuracy is 84.8% and overall absolute accuracy is 85.16% for gram-positive dataset; and, for gram-negative dataset, overall locative accuracy is 85.4% and overall absolute accuracy is 86.3%.
NGO Participation in International Lawmaking and Democratic Legitimacy: The Debate and its Future

Over the last few decades, scholars - mainly in the field of law and international relations - have argued that NGOs are indispensable in making international law more democratically legitimate. This study refers to this as the ‘NGO democratic legitimacy thesis’. The thesis is presented as a response to concerns about democratic legitimacy fueled by, among other recent developments, the increasing regulatory autonomy of international organizations and the increased informality of international lawmaking. This study critically revisits the debate on the NGO democratic legitimacy thesis. It delves into the concept of democratic legitimacy and uses it as an analytical framework to assess the thesis. It first reviews developments in international lawmaking, including NGOs’ participation, and assesses concerns regarding the democratic legitimacy of international law. By virtue of a renewed analytical framework, this study assesses the use of the analytical terminology of democratic legitimacy. Ultimately it concludes that the NGO democratic legitimacy thesis rests on rather weak foundations. In contrast to the strong focus on NGOs internal democratic legitimacy, scholars tend to put relatively little emphasis on the institutional preconditions necessary for the democratic legitimation of law. This study criticizes this lack of attention to institutional preconditions and discusses the conceptual and practical impasses of institutional preconditions at the international legal level. Finally, this study moves beyond the NGO democratic legitimacy debate by proposing an analytical term that better fits understanding NGOs’ contributions to international lawmaking: a quality justification of international law.
Zimeldine versus amitriptyline in endogenous depression. A double‐blind study

ABSTRACT– In a double‐blind comparison of 21 inpatients with endogenous depression 225 mg zimeldine demonstrated the same degree of antidepressive efficacy as 150 mg amitriptyline after 4 weeks of treatment. Only “sleep disturbances” on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS) showed significant (P < 0.05) improvement with amitriptyline.
Phytotechnologies – Preventing Exposures, Improving Public Health

Phytotechnologies have potential to reduce the amount or toxicity of deleterious chemicals and agents, and thereby, can reduce human exposures to hazardous substances. As such, phytotechnologies are tools for primary prevention in public health. Recent research demonstrates phytotechnologies can be uniquely tailored for effective exposure prevention in a variety of applications. In addition to exposure prevention, plants can be used as sensors to identify environmental contamination and potential exposures. In this paper, we have presented applications and research developments in a framework to illustrate how phytotechnologies can meet basic public health needs for access to clean water, air, and food. Because communities can often integrate plant-based technologies at minimal cost and with low infrastructure needs, the use of these technologies can be applied broadly to minimize potential contaminant exposure and improve environmental quality. These natural treatment systems also provide valuable ecosystem services to communities and society. In the future, integrating and coordinating phytotechnology activities with public health research will allow technology development focused on prevention of environmental exposures to toxic compounds. Hence, phytotechnologies may provide sustainable solutions to environmental exposure challenges, improving public health and potentially reducing the burden of disease.
Performance improvement of DPSK system using a reconfigurable multiple bit differential detection algorithm in the presence of frequency offset

In this paper we propose a reconfigurable multiple bit differential detection algorithm that can be used for the DPSK signal reception in the presence of significant frequency offsets. The analysis shows that the bit error probability of the proposed algorithm is nearly constant in a wide frequency offsets range and equal to the error probability for zero frequency offset. Also, the proposed receiver has better performance than the ordinary differential detection receiver for any frequency offset.
Channel uncertainty effect upon the information capacity of mobile communications channels

This paper analyzes the channel uncertainty which is a fundamental issue for the information theory of time varying mobile communication channels. We use an accumulated common experience to define six axioms related to the non trivial influence of the channel uncertainty to the information capacity of time-varying communication channels. Based on these axioms, we propose the concept of time varying binary symmetric channel (TV-BSC). We show that the TV-BSC is unique as the simplest model that exhibits a non-trivial influence on capacity due to the channel uncertainty. That an influence of the channel uncertainty is captured serves to significantly differentiate the model from other two-state Markov models, especially from the the Gilbert-Elliott model. We use several methods to calculate the information capacity of the TV-BSC. Furthermore, we find accurate approximations for the TV-BSC information capacity, providing better insight into the capacity analysis of more general time varying communication channels.
Understanding the Impact of Mentee’s Gender in the Development of Informal Mentoring Relationships in the Workplace

Research regarding gender and mentoring suggests that women are mentored less often than their male colleagues, which could have a detrimental effect on women’s career development and growth. Although researchers have proposed different explanations and solutions to ease this phenomenon, women continue to report being under-mentored. In an effort to understand this issue in depth, two exploratory qualitative study were conducted. In the first study, twenty women holding tenure track academic positions in seven different business schools in Canada and the United States were interviewed to understand their experiences with mentoring. Through content analysis of the data, the existence of a type of barrier previously unidentified in the literature was unearthed, namely barriers to the development of the mentoring relationship. Two barriers to the development of a mentoring relationship, Need for Fit and Demonstrating Capability, are described and discussed in this study. Given these findings, a second study was designed in order to gain in-depth knowledge on barriers to the development of mentorships. Thirty three men and women from different organizations, industries and professions were invited to participate. The data from this second study supports the existence of barriers to the development of mentorship. The data signal the existence of the two barriers identified in Study 1, Need for Fit and Demonstrating Capability, while it also suggests the existence of four other barriers, Commitment of the Mentor, Trust in the Mentor, Need to Share a Goal/Vision and Admiration towards the Mentor. The relevance of these barriers seems to vary by gender and organizational context which would explain why women would be under-mentored when compared to their male colleagues. Implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
Optimal synthesis of quasi-optical launchers for high-power gyrotrons

Quasi-optical launcher designs for high-power gyrotrons use perturbations of the waveguide surface following the cavity to convert the high order cavity mode to a Gaussian-like beam, which is then radiated from a spiral cut of the waveguide. The design technique of these launchers is based on an analytic theory that specifies the mode amplitudes to obtain a Gaussian-like distribution of the field in the azimuthal and longitudinal directions. This approach can generate a beam with high Gaussian content and low diffraction losses. However, by adjusting the mode amplitudes to obtain a Gaussian-like distribution of the field in the radial (instead of the azimuthal) direction, designs with significantly less diffraction loss, reduced beam divergence angles, and higher Gaussian beam content can be achieved