Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PARTIAL PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN EXTRACTIBLE NUCLEAR ANTIGEN WHICH REACTS WITH SLE SERA

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is characterized by the appearance of autoantibodies which react with many different cell constituents. ’. ’ These constituents include mitochondria, microsomes and the soluble cytoplasmic supernate, whole nuclei, deoxyribonucleohistone, DNA, histone, and a material extractible from the nuclei with isotonic buffers (henceforth called the extractible nuclear antigen). The LE cell is formed as a result of the reaction of an autoantibody with deoxyribonucleohistone. Both DNA and histone appear to be essential for this r e a ~ t i o n . ~ Autoantibodies to the extractible nuclear antigen appear in many different rheumatic or “connective tissue” diseases; they are the most frequently encountered of the antinuclear autoantibodies and are usually present in the highest titers. This paper is concerned with a method for partial purification of this extractible nuclear antigen, identification of some of its properties and presentation of indirect evidence concerning its intracellular location. Throughout these studies the assay for the antigen was complement fixation using selected sera from patients with SLE.4 Nuclear materials were obtained primarily from calf thymocytes, but all studies were duplicated with mouse spleen nuclear antigens.
Studying Divine Healing Practices Empirical and Theological Lenses, and the Theory of Godly Love

This article explores how empirical and theological lenses can be brought into focus to study pentecostal divine healing practices. The project takes as a case study the healing prayer practices of globally influential pentecostal networks that developed out of the Toronto Blessing of the 1990s: the United States-based Apostolic Network of Global Awakening and the Mozambique-based Iris Ministries. Although science cannot prove or disprove that prayer really results in divine healing, empirical investigations can corroborate or challenge specific claims. Both social scientific and clinical research methods are valuable in assessing perceptions and measurable effects of healing prayer practices. Theological analysis of how prayer is understood and practiced provides an important tool for designing appropriate empirical studies. This project considers the complementary information provided by before-after medical records, survey responses, clinical measurements, and ethnographic follow-up observations and interviews. Because healing prayer is often transacted in the context of social networks, the sociological theory of Godly Love offers a useful model for interpreting study results. This article argues that the widespread perception that prayer results in divine healing has demonstrably real social effects, and in some cases the social interactions involved in healing rituals produce measurable health outcomes.
Sar1 localizes at the rims of COPII-coated membranes in vivo

ABSTRACT The Sar1 GTPase controls coat assembly on coat protein complex II (COPII)-coated vesicles, which mediate protein transport from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi. The GTP-bound form of Sar1, activated by the ER-localized guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) Sec12, associates with the ER membrane. GTP hydrolysis by Sar1, stimulated by the COPII-vesicle-localized GTPase-activating protein (GAP) Sec23, in turn causes Sar1 to dissociate from the membrane. Thus, Sar1 is cycled between active and inactive states, and on and off vesicle membranes, but its precise spatiotemporal regulation remains unknown. Here, we examined Sar1 localization on COPII-coated membranes in living Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Two-dimensional (2D) observation demonstrated that Sar1 showed modest accumulation around the ER exit sites (ERES) in a manner that was dependent on Sec16 function. Detailed three-dimensional (3D) observation further demonstrated that Sar1 localized at the rims of the COPII-coated membranes, but was excluded from the rest of the COPII membranes. Additionally, a GTP-locked form of Sar1 induced abnormally enlarged COPII-coated structures and covered the entirety of these structures. These results suggested that the reversible membrane association of Sar1 GTPase leads to its localization being restricted to the rims of COPII-coated membranes in vivo. Highlighted Article: Detailed three-dimensional observations reveal that the localization of Sar1, which cycles on and off COPII-coated membranes, is restricted to the rims of the COPII-coated membranes in vivo.
A modification of Shanks' baby-step giant-step algorithm

I describe a modification to Shanks' baby-step giant-step algorithm for computing the order n of an element g of a group G, assuming n is finite. My method has the advantage of being able to compute n quickly, which Shanks' method fails to do when the order of G is infinite, unknown, or much larger than n. I describe the algorithm in detail. I also present the results of implementations of my algorithm, as well as those of a similar algorithm developed by Buchmann, Jacobson, and Teske, for calculating the order of various ideal classes of imaginary quadratic orders.
Simultane Analysen auf Schüler- und Klassenebene : Eine Demonstration der konfirmatorischen Mehrebenen-Faktorenanalyse zur Analyse der Schülerwahrnehmungen am Beispiel der Hausaufgabenvergabe

Zusammenfassung. Daten in der padagogisch-psychologischen Forschung weisen haufig eine Mehrebenenstruktur auf: Schuler sind geschachtelt innerhalb von Schulen und Klassen. Dies muss berucksichtigt werden, wenn Schuler Merkmale ihres schulischen Kontextes (z.B. Lehrer, Schulklima) auf mehreren Dimensionen beurteilen sollen und dann die Einschatzungen der Schuler sowohl auf der Individual- als auch aggregiert auf der Klassenebene in weiteren Analysen verwendet werden. Die konfirmatorische Mehrebenen-Faktorenanalyse ist ein Verfahren, das zur Analyse solcher Daten besonders gut geeignet, bislang jedoch noch nicht ausreichend bekannt ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit demonstriert anhand eines Datensatzes aus der Hausaufgabenforschung (1712 Schuler in 98 Klassen) die Grundlagen und Anwendung der Mehrebenen-Faktorenanalyse. Sowohl auf Schuler- als auch auf Klassenebene liesen sich die drei Faktoren Qualitat der Hausaufgaben, die Kontrolle der Hausaufgaben sowie die effektive Zeitnutzung im Franzosisch-Unterricht erwa.
Relaxed Multiple-Instance SVM with Application to Object Discovery

Multiple-instance learning (MIL) has served as an important tool for a wide range of vision applications, for instance, image classification, object detection, and visual tracking. In this paper, we propose a novel method to solve the classical MIL problem, named relaxed multiple-instance SVM (RMI-SVM). We treat the positiveness of instance as a continuous variable, use Noisy-OR model to enforce the MIL constraints, and optimize them jointly in a unified framework. The optimization problem can be efficiently solved using stochastic gradient decent. The extensive experiments demonstrate that RMI-SVM consistently achieves superior performance on various benchmarks for MIL. Moreover, we simply applied RMI-SVM to a challenging vision task, common object discovery. The state-of-the arts results of object discovery on PASCAL VOC datasets further confirm the advantages of the proposed method.
In silico identification and characterization of microRNAs and their putative target genes in Solanaceae plants.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, single-stranded, noncoding RNAs ranging from 19 to 25 nucleotides. The miRNA control various cellular functions by negatively regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. The miRNA regulation over their target genes has a central role in regulating plant growth and development; however, only a few reports have been published on the function of miRNAs in the family Solanaceae. We identified Solanaceae miRNAs and their target genes by analyzing expressed sequence tag (EST) data from five different Solanaceae species. A comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of EST data of Solanaceae species revealed the presence of at least 11 miRNAs and 54 target genes in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), 22 miRNAs and 221 target genes in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), 12 miRNAs and 417 target genes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), 46 miRNAs and 60 target genes in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), and 7 miRNAs and 28 target genes in Nicotiana benthamiana. The identified Solanaceae miRNAs and their target genes were deposited in the SolmiRNA database, which is freely available for academic research only at http://genepool.kribb. re.kr/SolmiRNA. Our data indicate that the Solanaceae family has both conserved and specific miRNAs and that their target genes may play important roles in growth and development of Solanaceae plants.
Discriminative linear transforms for speaker adaptation

Linear transform adaptation techniques such as Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR) are a popular and effective family of methods for speaker adaptation. MLLR estimates transform parameters for Gaussian means and variances using a maximum likelihood (ML) objective function. This paper discusses the use of an alternative discriminative objective function for linear transform estimation, which is an interpolation of the maximum mutual information (MMI) objective function and the ML criterion. This Discriminative Linear Transform (DLT) more directly reduces the word error rate of the adaptation data than MLLR and assuming good generalisation will also reduce test-set error rates. The implementation of DLT estimation is discussed and test-data recognition results compared to those from standard unconstrained MLLR (mean and variance adaptation) using the 1994 WSJ/NAB spoke 3 non-native adaptation task. The results show that relative reductions in word error rate between 7% and 19% can be obtained by using DLTs.
Models Case of a Tunisian bank

Deciding whether or not to grant a loan is a key decision financial institutions have to make every day, especially for short-term commercial loans that are frequently subject to renewal. In effect, bank’s credit decision gains in efficiency if it can prevent significant losses by obtaining a solid understanding of who will default on a credit. Determining the symptoms that lead to bad loans can be an effective way of reducing credit risk, by pointing out high-risk applicants who should be avoided Many classification methods have been suggested in the literature to tackle this problem. Neural networks, especially, have received a lot of attention because of their universal approximation property. This paper addresses the question of default prediction of short term loans for a Tunisian commercial bank. We use a multilayer neural network model to predict if a particular applicant can be classified as solvent or bankrupt. The results show that the best information set is the one combining accrual, cash-flow and collateral variables. Moreover, our investigation shows that the bank could have reduced the percentage of loss (failure on short term credits) from 18.7% to 12% during 2007.
Antibiotic Resistance Patterns and Serotypes of Salmonella spp. Isolated at Jeollanam-do in Korea

Objectives Few long-term studies have been conducted on the serotype and antibiotic resistance patterns of Salmonella speices (spp.) The aim of this study was to determine the serotypes and antibiotic resistance patterns of Salmonella spp. isolated at Jeollanam-do in Korea from 2004 to 2014. Methods A total of 276 Salmonella samples were evaluated. Serotyping was carried out according to the Kauffmann–White scheme. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined using the Vitek II system with an AST-N169 card. Results A total of 22 different serotypes were identified, and the major serotypes were Salmonella Enteritidis (116 strains, 42.0%) and Salmonella Typhimurium (60 strains, 21.7%). The highest resistance was observed in response to nalidixic acid (43.4%), followed by ampicillin (40.5%) and tetracycline (31.6%). Resistance to nalidixic acid was detected in 81.0% of S. Enteritidis. Multidrug resistance was detected in 43.3% of Salmonella spp. S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium presented the highest resistance (98.3%) and multidrug resistance rate (73.3%), respectively. The most highly observed antibiotic resistance pattern among Salmonella spp. in this study was ampicillin-chloramphenicol (14 strains, 5.7%), Conclusion Overall, S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium showed higher antibiotic resistance than the other Salmonella serotypes tested in this study. Our study will provide useful information for investigating the sources of Salmonella infections, as well as selecting effective antibiotics for treatment.
The Cell Wall of the Pathogenic Bacterium Rhodococcus equi Contains Two Channel-Forming Proteins with Different Properties

ABSTRACT We have identified in organic solvent extracts of whole cells of the gram-positive pathogen Rhodococcus equi two channel-forming proteins with different and complementary properties. The isolated proteins were able to increase the specific conductance of artificial lipid bilayer membranes made from phosphatidylcholine-phosphatidylserine mixtures by the formation of channels able to be permeated by ions. The channel-forming protein PorAReq (R. equi pore A) is characterized by the formation of cation-selective channels, which are voltage gated. PorAReq has a single-channel conductance of 4 nS in 1 M KCl and shows high permeability for positively charged solutes because of the presence of negative point charges. According to the results of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the protein has an apparent molecular mass of about 67 kDa. The analysis (using the effect of negative charges on channel conductance) of the concentration dependence of the single-channel conductance suggested that the diameter of the cell wall channel is about 2.0 nm. The second channel (formed by PorBReq [R. equi pore B]) shows a preferred movement of anions through the channel and is not voltage gated. This channel shows a single-channel conductance of 300 pS in 1 M KCl and is characterized by the presence of positive point charges in or near the channel mouth. Based on SDS-PAGE, the apparent molecular mass of the channel-forming protein is about 11 kDa. Channel-forming properties of the investigated cell wall porins were compared with those of others isolated from mycolic acid-containing actinomycetes. We present here the first report of a fully characterized anion-selective cell wall channel from a member of the order Actinomycetales.
Algorithm of edge blending based on the nonlinear function

The paper introduce the technique of edge blending process that is the key technique of the seamless tiled system and put forward the improved algorithm of edge blending in order to eliminate the edge of the light generated regional integration and achieve seamless connection. the algorithm is the modification of existing blending algorithm that using two addition parameter p and a, and add Gamma operator to further correction of the pixel brightness. finally, the color/brightness to match the output to be a certain degree of processing. Experimental results show that, the proposed algorithm effectively eliminates the light generated by the edge of the integration region and the image have good transitions, the proposed algorithm reduces the output of the projector color differences by the value of SNR.
Cultural distance and expatriate adjustment revisited

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural distance and cross-cultural adjustment. The authors address four hypotheses regarding this relationship: the Cultural Distance Hypothesis; the Cultural Distance Paradox; the Null Hypothesis; and the Asymmetry Hypothesis, in an effort to reconcile the disparities found in the literature. Specifically, portions of the extant literature support a positive relationship, while others support the opposite. There is also some evidence that this relationship may vary depending on the direction of expatriate transfer. Finally, some of the research has failed to support any significant relationship between cultural distance and adjustment. Design/methodology/approach - Survey data were collected from 125 expatriates (117 expatriates and eight repatriates), representing 36 nationalities and on assignment in 32 different countries. Multiple regression analyses were used to regress cultural distance on both general and work-related adjustment. Cultural distance was first operationalized as a composite of the scores on Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Subsequently, distances for each of the dimensions were entered into the regression models. Findings - The authors concur with the Cultural Distance Paradox that greater differences in individualism between home and host cultures facilitates work adjustment. Findings also support the Asymmetry Hypothesis that travel from individualistic societies to more collectivist ones results in greater adjustment than does travel in the opposite direction. Practical implications - Based on the Cultural Distance Paradox, firms may be well-advised to direct their expatriate training efforts toward those assignments where the home and host cultures are presumably similar, as there may be a tendency to take adjustment for granted and therefore forgo cross-cultural training. Similar efforts should be made to ease transfers to locations where the culture is more individualistic than that of the parent country. Originality/value - Rather than fixate on one set of findings from the literature, this study considers all four of the possible relationships between cultural distance and adjustment, as found or suggested in previous research. This comprehensive approach should advance our understanding of cultural distance as a complex construct, with a role that cannot be consistently defined across all situations. This represents a departure from the need to assign static roles to variables that may be dynamic in nature.
Crop management, genotypes, and environmental factors affect soyasaponin B concentration in soybean.

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] seeds contain soyasaponin B, which has putative health benefits. Studies were conducted in multiple environments in Quebec, Canada to determine the effects of genotypes, environments, and seeding dates on soyasaponin B concentration in mature seeds. A growth chamber study was also conducted to determine the impact of high air temperature imposed at specific growth development stages on soyasaponin B in soybeans. Concentrations of individual and total soyasaponin B were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. Genotype and environment main effects were the main determinants of soyasaponin B concentration in soybean, genotype × environment interactions accounting for less than 5% of the variation for all soyasaponin. Ranking of 20 early maturing soybean genotypes was thus relatively consistent across four environments, total concentration varying between 2.31 and 6.59 μmol g(-1). Seeding date consistently impacted soyasaponin B concentrations, early seeding date resulting in the highest concentrations. There was an 11% difference in total soyasaponin B concentration of soybeans seeded in mid-May compared to that in late-June. The response to high air temperature was complex and cultivar specific. High temperature stress restricted to the seed filling stages increased total soyasaponin B concentration in one cultivar by 28% when compared to that in control nonstressed plants; however, in another cultivar high temperature applied during all growth stages reduced total concentration by 27%. Results from the present study thus demonstrate that environmental factors and crop management both impact soyasaponin B concentration in soybeans.
Judging quality in peer research: a comparison of adult- and peer-led focus groups in a Kenyan context

Peer research has been recognized as an important strategy. As with other qualitative approaches, one issue that is often raised is how do we judge the quality of such methods? This paper argues that one of the ways we can do this is by comparing the data collected through participatory methods with that collected with other research strategies within the same research context. This was done through a qualitative study which investigated student's attitudes towards ethnicity and politics in two secondary schools in Kenya. A research design was developed using focus-group discussions where half of the focus groups were led by an adult researcher and the other half by a student researcher. The paper will compare the data collected from these two kinds of focus groups using the framework method in order to illustrate that peer research produces high-quality data comparable to that collected using other means. Moreover, the paper will use reflections from the process to show that one other way that we can judge the quality of peer research is through the benefits that accrue not only to the peer researchers such as skills development but also to the adult researchers, for example greater reflexivity.
Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth

We exploit the major international health improvements from the 1940s to estimate the effect of life expectancy on economic performance. We construct predicted mortality using preintervention mortality rates from various diseases and dates of global interventions. Predicted mortality has a large impact on changes in life expectancy starting in 1940 but no effect before 1940. Using predicted mortality as an instrument, we find that a 1 percent increase in life expectancy leads to a 1.7–2 percent increase in population. Life expectancy has a much smaller effect on total GDP, however. Consequently, there is no evidence that the large increase in life expectancy raised income per capita.
Exploring tonal information for Lhasa dialect acoustic modeling

Detailed analysis of tonal features for Tibetan Lhasa dialect is an important task for Tibetan automatic speech recognition (ASR) applications. However, it is difficult to utilize tonal information because it remains controversial how many tonal patterns the Lhasa dialect has. Therefore, few studies have focused on modeling the tonal information of the Lhasa dialect for speech recognition purpose. For this reason, we investigated influences of the tonal information on the performance of Lhasa Tibetan speech recognition. Since Lhasa Tibetan has no conclusive tonal pattern yet, in this study, we used a four-tone pattern and designed a phone set based on the four contour contrasts scheme. Speech recognition performance was examined using the acoustic model with and without the pitch-related features. The experimental results showed that the character error rate (CER) was improved 11% after applying the tone based phone set and pitch-related features to DNN-HMM based speech recognition by comparing to that without tonal information. This preliminary study revealed that the tonal information plays an important role in speech recognition of Tibetan Lhasa dialect.