Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forward osmosis :a new approach to water purification and desalination.

Fresh, potable water is an essential human need and thus looming water shortages threaten the world's peace and prosperity. Waste water, brackish water, and seawater have great potential to fill the coming requirements. Unfortunately, the ability to exploit these resources is currently limited in many parts of the world by both the cost of the energy and the investment in equipment required for purification/desalination. Forward (or direct) osmosis is an emerging process for dewatering aqueous streams that might one day help resolve this problem. In FO, water from one solution selectively passes through a membrane to a second solution based solely on the difference in the chemical potential (concentration) of the two solutions. The process is spontaneous, and can be accomplished with very little energy expenditure. Thus, FO can be used, in effect, to exchange one solute for a different solute, specifically chosen for its chemical or physical properties. For desalination applications, the salts in the feed stream could be exchanged for an osmotic agent specifically chosen for its ease of removal, e.g. by precipitation. This report summarizes work performed at Sandia National Laboratories in the area of FO and reviews the status of the technology for desalination applications. Atmore » its current state of development, FO will not replace reverse osmosis (RO) as the most favored desalination technology, particularly for routine waters. However, a future role for FO is not out of the question. The ability to treat waters with high solids content or fouling potential is particularly attractive. Although our analysis indicates that FO is not cost effective as a pretreatment for conventional BWRO, water scarcity will likely drive societies to recover potable water from increasingly marginal resources, for example gray water and then sewage. In this context, FO may be an attractive pretreatment alternative. To move the technology forward, continued improvement and optimization of membranes is recommended. The identification of optimal osmotic agents for different applications is also suggested as it is clear that the space of potential agents and recovery processes has not been fully explored. « less
Multiagent interactions in distributed virtual worlds

Multiagent systems provide a valuable tool for handling increasing software complexity and supporting rapid and accurate problem solving. This paper presents a general architecture in which autonomous agents are embedded in a distributed virtual environment and are enabled to communicate with each other. We focus on the interaction issues, using cooperation and coordination patterns. Different cases of the agents' teamwork to improve their efficiency are investigated and compared. A prototype system has been implemented, with message templates and algorithms identified. Finally, some experimental results are given.
Calcium Signalling in Secretory Cells

Stimulation of secretory cells with muscarinic agonists leads to an increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), which activates protein secretion through exocytosis and causes closure of gap junctions between adjacent cells. In addition, the increase in [Ca2+]i activates three different kinds of ion channels: large K+ channels, Cl− channels and non-specific cation channels. The opening of those channels leads to an increase of [Na+] and a decrease of [Cl−] and [K+] in the cell. The two components that contribute to the increase in [Ca2+]i are calcium release from intracellular stores, localised in the endoplasmic reticulum and calcium influx through the plasma membrane. Several models for the regulation of [Ca2+]i have been proposed, including a recently suggested model whereby a distinct pathway involving arachidonic acid is added to the well-established capacitative model. Different hypotheses concerning coupling between the intra-cellular calcium stores and membrane channels co-exist. In addition to a historical overview, recent developments and future challenges are discussed in this review.
The Diffusion of an Innovation Among Physicians

Anthropologists and sociologists have long been concerned with the processes through which customs, practices, attitudes, or messages spread. Traditionally, these processes have been studied by examining the eco­ logical distribution of the trait at successive points in time. In a few cases, the actual transmission of messages from person to person has been traced out (e.g., 1, 3, 4, 5, 10). A still different approach to the study of this problem is reported in this paper. The population is physicians in four cities; the item whose use was spreading was a new drug; and the study focused on the ongoing social processes which finally led to widespread adoption of the drug by these physicians. Data were collected 15 months after a new drug with wide potential use, here call ed "gammanym," had been placed on the market. By this time almost all the doctors in relevant specialties in the four cities studied had used the drug, some almost immediately, others only after a consider­ able interval of time. The research problem, stated most concretely, is this: What were the social processes which intervened between the initial trials of the drug by a few local innovators and its final use by virtually the whole medical community? The results reported below concern the effectiveness of networks of interpersonal relations at each stage of the diff usion process. The study is to be reported in full elsewhere (2) ; a pilot study has already been reported upon (9). A separate article by one of us describes the cumulative research experiences which led to the decision to focus explicitly upon interpersonal relations, using sociometric t�h­ niques (6).
dad‐1, an endogenous programmed cell death suppressor in Caenorhabditis elegans and vertebrates.

Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is a normally occurring process used to eliminate unnecessary or potentially harmful cells in multicellular organisms. Recent studies demonstrate that the molecular control of this process is conserved phylogenetically in animals. The dad‐1 gene, which encodes a novel 113 amino acid protein, was originally identified in a mutant hamster cell line (tsBN7) that undergoes apoptosis at restrictive temperature. We have identified a dad‐1 homologue in Caenorhabditis elegans (Ce‐dad‐1) whose predicted product is > 60% identical to vertebrate DAD‐1. A search of the sequence databases indicated that DAD‐1‐like proteins are also expressed in two plant species. Expression of either human dad‐1 or Ce‐dad‐1 under control of a C.elegans heat‐shock‐inducible promoter resulted in a reduction in the number of programmed cell death corpses visible in C.elegans embryos. Extra surviving cells were present in these animals, indicating that both the human and C.elegans dad‐1 genes can suppress developmentally programmed cell death. Ce‐dad‐1 was found to rescue mutant tsBN7 hamster cells from apoptotic death as efficiently as the vertebrate genes. These results suggest that dad‐1, which is necessary for cell survival in a mammalian cell line, is sufficient to suppress some programmed cell death in C.elegans.
A Gravity Model for Indonesian Canned Tuna Exports to The European Union Market: An Application of PPML Estimator

In this study, we examine the factors that affect the export of Indonesian canned tuna to the European Union (EU) market through a gravity model approach. This paper employs a gravity model approach through Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation. Data from 2006 to 2015 covering 10 countries in the EU market (Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) were employed with HS 160414 product code specifications. Constant Market Share Analysis (CMSA) was performed to examine Indonesian export growth as well as its competitors. The findings indicated that the performance of Indonesian canned tuna exports to the EU market is prominently affected by competitiveness effect while Thai canned tuna export is more affected by the import growth effect and composition effect. The Philippines and Vietnam canned tuna exports are more affected by composition effect and competitiveness effect. The factors that significantly affect the export of Indonesian canned tuna to the EU market are the population of the importing countries, tuna production volumes and real exchange rate.
The Value Relevance of Accounting Information in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France: Effects Arising from the Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards

Many researchers have tried to compare the value relevance of accounting information under national GAAP with that of the newly implemented MRS in EU countries. However, due to the unavailability of data they limited their studies to either analysing reconciliations from national GAAP to IFRS or examining firms that voluntarily adopted MRS before the 1st January 2005. The novelty of this research is that it compares annual accounts of firms for the pre and post IFRS period and examines the change in the value relevance of accounting information. The theoretical framework of the regression model comes from Ohlson (1995). The data consists of 50 firms in each observed country (i.e. the UK, the Netherlands, Gennany, and France) that are tested for a 4 year period (2003-2006). The results of this study are intriguing. There is an observed overall increase in the value relevance of accounting infonnation. However, the magnitude of the change is not the same for all countries. Countries like France, which were initially sceptical to the idea of applying international standards, indicated higher levels of value relevance of accounting information than the UK and the Netherlands. Germany was the country with the highest number of early IAS adopters. Although such firms were excluded from the sample, Germany emphatically remained one of the countries with the highest level of value relevance of accounting information. On the other hand, the UK and the Netherlands were the countries with the highest positive change in value relevance between the pre and post IFRS periods. Future research will tell whether the observed overall increase, during the transition-to-IFRS period, in the value relevance of accounting information will become a long-term trend for these countries.
Glutamine: a major gluconeogenic precursor and vehicle for interorgan carbon transport in man.

To compare glutamine and alanine as gluconeogenic precursors, we simultaneously measured their systemic turnovers, clearances, and incorporation into plasma glucose, their skeletal muscle uptake and release, and the proportion of their appearance in plasma directly due to their release from protein in postabsorptive normal volunteers. We infused the volunteers with [U-14C] glutamine, [3-13C] alanine, [2H5] phenylalanine, and [6-3H] glucose to isotopic steady state and used the forearm balance technique. We found that glutamine appearance in plasma exceeded that of alanine (5.76 +/- 0.26 vs. 4.40 +/- 0.33 mumol.kg-1.min-1, P < 0.001), while alanine clearance exceeded glutamine clearance (14.7 +/- 1.3 vs. 9.3 +/- 0.8 ml.kg-1.min-1, P < 0.001). Glutamine appearance in plasma directly due to its release from protein was more than double that of alanine (2.45 +/- 0.25 vs. 1.16 +/- 0.12 mumol.kg-1.min-1, P < 0.001). Although overall carbon transfer to glucose from glutamine and alanine was comparable (3.53 +/- 0.24 vs 3.47 +/- 0.32 atoms.kg-1.min-1), nearly twice as much glucose carbon came from protein derived glutamine than alanine (1.48 +/- 0.15 vs 0.88 +/- 0.09 atoms.kg-1.min-1, P < 0.01). Finally, forearm muscle released more glutamine than alanine (0.88 +/- 0.05 vs 0.48 +/- 0.05 mumol.100 ml-1.min-1, P < 0.01). We conclude that in postabsorptive humans glutamine is quantitatively more important than alanine for transporting protein-derived carbon through plasma and adding these carbons to the glucose pool.
Small-scale Studies on Evacuation Characteristics of Pedestrians with physical, mental or age-related Disabilities

Evaluation of evacuation process is common separated by two phases: pre-movement and movement-phase. Individual capabilities of pedestrians have an impact on both and therefore on the time required for safe escape. In view of evaluating the evacuation process, characteristics of realistic movements of pedestrians involved are needed, but so far such data are mainly available for individuals with unrestricted evacuation capabilities only. Due to the lack of available data, parameter studies in an assisted living for people with disabilities were performed to explore the movement during evacuation. Preparation times for assistance (n = 10), unimpeded walking speeds (n = 34) depending on the assistance devices in the plane as well as walking speeds on stairs (n = 11) were focussed. Time to prepare an assistance device for utilisation depends significantly on the kind of device type. Further on, practical experience in handling the devices for assistance has an impact on the preparation time. In contrast to the results of the preparation times, any relation on assistance devices were investigated for the unimpeded walking speed in the plane. A remarkable decrease of walking speed on stairs was observed which is independent from the utilised assistance device. The presented data improve and extend the insufficient engineering data base and raised up questions regarding the complexity of considering pedestrians movement with impairments in evacuation planning.
Anterior-posterior positional information in the absence of a strong Bicoid gradient

The Bicoid (Bcd) transcription factor is distributed as a long-range concentration gradient along the anterior posterior (AP) axis of the Drosophila embryo. Bcd is required for the activation of a series of target genes, which are expressed at specific positions within the gradient. Here we directly tested whether different concentration thresholds within the Bcd gradient establish the relative positions of its target genes by flattening the gradient and systematically varying expression levels. Genome-wide expression profiles were used to estimate the total number of Bcd target genes, and a general correlation was found between the Bcd concentration required for activation and the positions where target genes are expressed in wild-type embryos. However, concentrations required for target gene activation in embryos with flattened Bcd were consistently lower than those present at each target gene's position in the wild-type gradient, suggesting that Bcd is in excess at every position along the AP axis. Also, several Bcd target genes were positioned in correctly ordered stripes in embryos with flattened Bcd, and we suggest that these stripes are normally regulated by interactions between Bcd and the terminal patterning system. Our findings argue strongly against the strict interpretation of the Bcd morphogen hypothesis, and support the idea that target gene positioning involves combinatorial interactions that are mediated by the binding site architecture of each gene's cis-regulatory elements.
Water Carrying Capacity Approach in Spatial Planning: Case Study at Malang Area

The Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 32 of 2009 and 26 of 2007 affirms that need environmental carrying capacity in preparation of regional spatial plans. The Great Malang bypassed 12 sub-watershed which is 4 of them pass 3 regency / city directly. Therefore, it needs an integrated spatial arrangement between the three regions. The purpose of this research is to formulate study of water carrying capacity (WCC) and recommendation for input in spatial planning in Malang area. The results of the water carrying capacity study show that Metro and the Bango Sub-watershed is very worrying because its critical condition has been exceeded before 2015. While the Amprong and Manten sub-waters are still safe until 2030. Key word: Amprong, Bango, Manten, Metro, Sub-watershed, Water carrying capacity
Analysis of the Equity and job Satisfaction at the Workplace- Implementation of Relevant Business Laws

The aim of this research was to examine the relationships between employee perception of equity and job satisfaction in the Erbil private banks. Data were gathered using a face-to-face survey of 119employees at five private banks inErbil. The findings showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between affirmation action with job satisfaction, there is a significant and positive relationship between affirmation action with job satisfaction and there is no a significant and positive relationship between embracing diversity with job satisfaction in private banks in Erbil. Keywords— Equity, Equal Employment Opportunity, Business Law, Job Satisfaction.
A client group-server DBMS architecture and inter-client communication caching schemes in the WAN environment

Previous research on the client-server DBMS has focused on the client data caching schemes in the LAN-based client-server architectures. We investigate the issue of client data caching in the WAN environment. In the WAN environment, it is common that many clients are clustered in some local area, connected to each other over a LAN, and often request the same data to the same remote server. To take advantage of such a characteristic, we considered a client group-server DBMS architecture, in which the clients connected over a LAN in each local area form a client group and communicate with the server via a broker, a special client that belongs to the group and maintains cache consistency in its group on behalf of the server. We propose the data caching scheme called ICCC (Inter-Client Communication Caching) that fits the client group-server DBMS architecture. In ICCC, cached data can be shared among clients within the group through inter-client communication under the intervention of their broker. We conducted simulation experiments to evaluate the performance of ICCC. The results showed that ICCC considerably outperformed the standard callback locking scheme employed in the WAN environment.
The E6 Protein of the Cutaneous Human Papillomavirus Type 8 Can Stimulate the Viral Early and Late Promoters by Distinct Mechanisms

ABSTRACT The expression of the proteins encoded by human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is tightly linked to the differentiation program of the infected keratinocytes. The late promoter, expressing the structural proteins, becomes activated in the differentiated keratinocytes, while the early promoter is also active in the basal layers. We have shown previously that the viral transcriptional regulator E2 and the cellular coactivator p300 cooperate in activation of gene expression of HPV8, which infects the skin and is associated with epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Here we demonstrate that this activation is further stimulated after overexpression of the E6 oncoprotein of HPV8 (8E6). RNase protection experiments revealed that 8E6 efficiently cooperates with 8E2 and p300 in activation of the late promoter. In addition, the early promoter, which did not respond to 8E2 and/or p300, was stimulated more than fourfold by 8E6. Our data suggest that both promoters are activated via distinct mechanisms, since the activation of the early promoter was achieved by the N-terminal moiety of 8E6; in contrast, its C-terminal half was sufficient for late promoter activation. This was markedly reduced by the deletion of amino acids 132 to 136 of 8E6, which also abolished the binding to p300, indicating that a direct interaction between 8E6 and p300 is involved. Moreover, a 45-amino-acid segment within the C/H3 region of p300 is required for 8E6 to stimulate the coactivator function of p300. Our results demonstrate for the first time that an E6 oncoprotein of HPV directly contributes to the regulation of HPV gene expression.
Association rule mining for mobile map personalisation

This paper presents an algorithmic solution to map personalisation for mobile users. Fundamental data filtering approaches are combined into a working system where content-based filtering is used for regular users who have their interests/preferences profiled and collaborative filtering is used for new/occasional users without user profiles. User map interactions are implicitly collected for user profile acquisition. Furthermore, association rule mining has been applied through the user map interactions to discover the association rules for geo-spatial features/services commonly accessed together. Such association rules are stored in a tree-like data structure for efficient storing and searching. Other commonly accessed features/services can be further recommended to the personalised map by collaborative filtering. Real world datasets have been used for our system and the initial system evaluation has shown promising.
Ubiquitin Recognition by the Ubiquitin-associated Domain of p62 Involves a Novel Conformational Switch*

The p62 protein functions as a scaffold in signaling pathways that lead to activation of NF-κB and is an important regulator of osteoclastogenesis. Mutations affecting the receptor activator of NF-κB signaling axis can result in human skeletal disorders, including those identified in the C-terminal ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain of p62 in patients with Paget disease of bone. These observations suggest that the disease may involve a common mechanism related to alterations in the ubiquitin-binding properties of p62. The structural basis for ubiquitin recognition by the UBA domain of p62 has been investigated using NMR and reveals a novel binding mechanism involving a slow exchange structural reorganization of the UBA domain to a “bound” non-canonical UBA conformation that is not significantly populated in the absence of ubiquitin. The repacking of the three-helix bundle generates a binding surface localized around the conserved Xaa-Gly-Phe-Xaa loop that appears to optimize both hydrophobic and electrostatic surface complementarity with ubiquitin. NMR titration analysis shows that the p62-UBA binds to Lys48-linked di-ubiquitin with ∼4-fold lower affinity than to mono-ubiquitin, suggesting preferential binding of the p62-UBA to single ubiquitin units, consistent with the apparent in vivo preference of the p62 protein for Lys63-linked polyubiquitin chains (which adopt a more open and extended structure). The conformational switch observed on binding may represent a novel mechanism that underlies specificity in regulating signalinduced protein recognition events.
Free-Tree--freeware program for construction of phylogenetic trees on the basis of distance data and bootstrap/jackknife analysis of the tree robustness. Application in the RAPD analysis of genus Frenkelia.

The Win95 program for computation of distance matrixes and construction of phylogenetic or phenetic trees on the basis of RAPD, RFLP and allozyme data was presented. In contrast with other presently available software, the program FreeTree can also assess the robustness of the tree topology by bootstrap, jackknife or OTU-jackknife analysis. Moreover, the program can be used also for an analysis of data obtained in several independent experiments performed with nonidentical subsets of taxa. The function of the program was demonstrated by an analysis of RAPD data from 22 strains of Frenkelia. The program is available as an autoextractive archive containing the installation files of FreeTree and TreeView, manual in MS Word format and a sample of the input file at http://www.natur. cuni.cz/flegr/programs/+ ++freetree.