Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Precipitation of galactose-specific lectins by complex-type oligosaccharides and glycopeptides: studies with lectins from Ricinus communis (agglutinin I), Erythrina indica, Erythrina arborescens, Abrus precatorius (agglutinin), and Glycine max (soybean).

We have recently demonstrated that certain oligomannose and bisected hybrid type glycopeptides and bisected complex type oligosaccharides are bivalent for binding to concanavalin A and can precipitate the lectin [Bhattacharyya, L. , Ceccarini, C. , Lorenzoni, P., & Brewer, C.F. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 1288-1293; Bhattacharyya, L. , Haraldsson, M. , & Brewer, C.F. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 1294-1299]. The present results show that tri- and tetraantennary complex type oligosaccharides containing nonreducing terminal galactose residues, and a related triantennary glycopeptide, precipitate the D-galactose-specific lectins from Ricinus communis (agglutinin I) (RCA-I), Erythrina indica (EIL), Erythrina arborescens (EAL), and Glycine max (soybean) (SBA). Nonbisected and bisected biantennary complex type oligosaccharides can precipitate SBA, which is a tetrameric lectin, but not RCA-I, EIL, or EAL, which are dimeric lectins. The relative affinities of the oligosaccharides and glycopeptide were determined by hemagglutination inhibition measurements and their valencies by quantitative precipitin analyses. The equivalence points of the precipitin curves indicate that the tri- and tetraantennary oligosaccharides are tri- and tetravalent, respectively, for EIL, EAL, and SBA binding. However, the oligosaccharides are all trivalent for RCA-I binding due apparently to the larger size of the monomeric subunit of the lectin. The triantennary glycopeptide was also trivalent for RCA-I and EIL binding. Biantennary oligosaccharides with adequate chain lengths were found to be bivalent for binding to SBA; those with shorter chains did not precipitate the lectin. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
eWall for active long living: Assistive ICT services for chronically ill and elderly citizens

Independent living of senior citizens is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population, due to the impact on: (1) the life of the elderly people, (2) the national health systems, (3) the insurance companies, (4) the relatives and (5) the care-givers. Senior citizens may suffer from a number of diseases, including the decline in cardiopulmonary conditions, weaker muscle functions and a declined neuromuscular control of the movements, which result in a higher risk of fall and a higher vulnerability for cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. With respect to cognitive functions, senior citizens may suffer from a decline of memory function, less ability to orientate and a declined ability to cope with complex situations. This paper describes work in progress and proposes a novel architecture design for eHealth services in support of independent living and compensating for prevailing age- or disease-related physical and cognitive impairments for a significant prolongation of the primary end-user's functional capacity, a delay in institutionalization, increased autonomy and, prolonged participation in the society.
Sterilization and Offsetting Capital Movements: Evidence from West Germany, 1960-1970

The purpose of this paper is two fold. First, to estimate, using structural methods, the extent to which capital flows undermined West German monetary policy during the Bretton Woods years 1960 to 1970 and second, to show that earlier reduced form estimates of the capital-account offset coefficient are tainted by simultaneity bias thanks to the Deutsche Bundesbank's systematic policy of sterilization, and so overestimate the true coefficient. The paper distinguishes between the short-run or one-quarter offset coefficient and the long-run coefficient implied by the full adjustment of all asset markets. An aggregative structural model German financial markets yields short-run coefficients between . 50 and . 65implying substantial Bundesbank control over the monetary base, at least in the short-run. A formal test for simultaneous-equations bias provides evidence that variations in domestic credit cannot be regarded as exogenous and that equations regressing capital flows on changes in domestic credit and other variables exaggerate the extent of the offset.
Strategic non‐HRM— a viable alternative?

This article argues that the strategic management of people does not automatically involve the implementation of practices associated with human resource management (HRM), e.g. sophisticated selection methods, extensive communications, teamworking, extensive training, employee involvement and performance-related pay. The article begins by defining HRM and, in particular, the soft and hard variants of the concept. Soft HRM is defined as a bundle of practices aimed at securing high commitment and high performance from employees whereas hard HRM is defined as a group of practices based on the premise that human resources (HR) are a cost to be minimized. The empirical data are derived from a survey of personnel policy and practice amongst engineering companies in the east Midlands. Respondents are mainly from small and medium-sized establishments and the article concentrates on those who reported the existence of a formally-endorsed HR strategy. The survey finds evidence of bundles of practices that could be labelled as predominantly soft or hard HRM. However, the findings also identify a number of establishments that have an HR strategy but do not appear to have adopted either approach. The article goes on to identify the practices common to this middle approach, tentatively labelled ‘strategic non-HRM’. It concludes that firms may adopt a strategic approach to the management of HR which is neither commitment maximizing or cost minimizing but somewhere in between and suggests that this middle ground should be explored in its own right rather than dismissed as merely the ad hoc or piecemeal adoption of HRM. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Perceiving Positive Facial Expression Can Relieve Depressive Moods: The Effect of Emotional Contagion on Mood in People With Subthreshold Depression

Emotional contagion is a phenomenon by which an individual’s emotions directly trigger similar emotions in others. We explored the possibility that perceiving others’ emotional facial expressions affect mood in people with subthreshold depression (sD). Around 49 participants were divided into the following four groups: participants with no depression (ND) presented with happy faces; ND participants presented with sad faces; sD participants presented with happy faces; and sD participants presented with sad faces. Participants were asked to answer an inventory about their emotional states before and after viewing the emotional faces to investigate the influence of emotional contagion on their mood. Regardless of depressive tendency, the groups presented with happy faces exhibited a slight increase in the happy mood score and a decrease in the sad mood score. The groups presented with sad faces exhibited an increased sad mood score and a decreased happy mood score. These results demonstrate that emotional contagion affects the mood in people with sD, as well as in individuals with ND. These results indicate that emotional contagion could relieve depressive moods in people with sD. It demonstrates the importance of the emotional facial expressions of those around people with sD such as family and friends from the viewpoint of emotional contagion.
C-Terminal Domain Residues Important for Secretion and Attachment of RgpB in Porphyromonas gingivalis

ABSTRACT Porphyromonas gingivalis, a periodontal pathogen, expresses a group of surface proteins with a common C-terminal domain (CTD) that are exported by a novel secretion system to the surface, where they are covalently attached. Using RgpB as a model CTD protein, we have produced a series of site-directed mutations in the CTD sequence at conserved residues and at residues that may be modified and, hence, surface attached. The mutant RgpB proteins were expressed in a P. gingivalis host lacking functional RgpB and RgpA Arg-specific proteases. The RgpB mutants produced were Y674F, Y674F Y718F, T675Q S679Q T682Q T684Q, T693Q, F695A, D696A, N698A, G699P, G716P, T724Q, T728Q T730Q, and K732Q and a protein with a deletion of residues 692 to 702 (Δ692-702). The mutants were characterized for cell-associated Arg-specific protease activity and for cellular distribution using anti-Rgp antibodies and Western blotting of culture fractions. All the mutants exhibited cell-associated Arg-specific activity similar to that of the positive control except for the D696A and Δ692-702 mutants. For all mutants, except D696A and Δ692-702, the RgpB proteins were found modified and attached to the cell surface, which was the same profile found in the positive-control strain. Only trace amounts of the precursor form of the Δ692-702 mutant were detected in the outer membrane, with none detected in the periplasm or culture fluid although cell transcript levels were normal. The results suggest that residues 692 to 702 of the CTD, in particular, residue D696, have an important role in the attachment of RgpB at the cell surface and that without attachment secretion does not occur.
Now you feel it, now you don't.

Brain Research! [Figure][1] Mice shed light on mechanisms involved in whisker sensitivity. CREDIT: MARQUES/SHUTTERSTOCK What determines the detection of a sensory stimulus? To address this question, Takahashi et al. combined in vivo two-photon imaging, electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavioral analysis in a study of mice. Calcium signals in apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons in the somatosensory cortex controlled the perceptual threshold of the mice's whiskers. Strong reduction of dendritic calcium signaling impaired the perceptual detection threshold so that an identical stimulus could no longer be noticed. Science , this issue p. [1587][2] [1]: pending:yes [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aah6066
Drought Sensitivity of the Amazon Rainforest

Amazon forests are a key but poorly understood component of the global carbon cycle. If, as anticipated, they dry this century, they might accelerate climate change through carbon losses and changed surface energy balances. We used records from multiple long-term monitoring plots across Amazonia to assess forest responses to the intense 2005 drought, a possible analog of future events. Affected forest lost biomass, reversing a large long-term carbon sink, with the greatest impacts observed where the dry season was unusually intense. Relative to pre-2005 conditions, forest subjected to a 100-millimeter increase in water deficit lost 5.3 megagrams of aboveground biomass of carbon per hectare. The drought had a total biomass carbon impact of 1.2 to 1.6 petagrams (1.2 × 1015 to 1.6 × 1015 grams). Amazon forests therefore appear vulnerable to increasing moisture stress, with the potential for large carbon losses to exert feedback on climate change.
Splitting Frequency Diversity in Wireless Power Transmission

This paper investigates the methodology to create multiple frequency modes in a multiresonator system of one transmitter and multiple receivers based on the circuit theory. The multiple frequencies from natural responses of magnetic couplings could be obtained by determining the eigenvalues of a matrix equation. This potentially allows us to diversify transmissions to and from devices. Theoretical calculations and experiments show similar results of the multiple frequencies at given coupling conditions. Models of two, three, and four coils in straight line demonstrate the splitting mode in the spectral domain, which are validated by envelopes of signals. In measurements, three frequencies of 525, 625, and 695 kHz, and four frequencies of 495, 590, 670, and 755 kHz are achieved at the receiver for three- and four-coil models, respectively, when coils are equally distanced by 2 cm. When coupling coefficient of every adjacent coil in three-coil model is 0.2, aggregating the peak power at two and three splitting modes result in 28% and 71%, respectively, more power than that at resonance frequency. Similarly, with two, three, and four modes in four-coil model, the increases are 43%, 23%, and 33% with two, three, and four modes, respectively.
Member Experience, Use of External Assistance and Evaluation of Business Ideas

How do members’ experience and external interactions shape evaluation of the team’s business idea? With a sample of 74 teams that participated in a business idea competition, we showed that experience as defined by size, mean work experience, and assistance from individuals with business founding experience related positively to the teams’ business idea evaluations. The benefits of external founders are more pronounced for smaller than for larger teams. Having a founder in the team did not relate to idea evaluation but interaction effects showed smaller sized teams had worse evaluations if they did not have a founder in the team.
Intradaily seasonality of returns distribution. A quantile regression approach and intradaily VaR estimation

We investigate intradaily seasonal patterns on the distribution of high frequency financial returns. Using quantile regression we show the expansions and shrinks of the probability law through the day for three years of 15 minutes sampled stock returns. Returns are more dispersed and less concentrated around the median at the hours near the opening and closing. We provide intradaily value at risk assessments and we show how it adapts to changes of dispersion over the day.
In vitro analysis of the epstein‐barr virus: Host balance in long‐term renal allograft recipients

Four indlces of the EB virus carrier state, for which quantitative in vitro assays now exist, have been monitored in 55 renal allograft recipients under long‐term immunosuppression, each patient being tested on a single occasion. By comparison with parallel data from healthy control donors, the results indicate the extent to which virus replication in the throat and virusinfected B cells in the blood are increased as a result of immunosuppression; the concrodance between these two independent indices of the level of EB virus infection in vivo, first noted with healthy donors, was again observed within this large group of patients. Immunosuppression also leads to an impairment of virus‐specific memory T‐cell responsiveness and to an increase in anti‐viral antibody titres, but the results show that the level of virus infection prevailing in any one individual cannot be inferred directly from these immunological indices of the virus: host balance. In allograft patients on stable levels of immunosuppression, virus and host appear to establish a new equilibrium. Limited prospective studies suggest that the position of this new equilibrium depends critically upon the virus: host balance prevalling in the same individuals before immunosuppression began. This may be an important consideration in identifying patients for whom immunosppression may carry a particularly high risk of developing EB virus genome‐positive lymphoma.
miR-21 mediates hematopoietic suppression in MDS by activating TGF-b signaling

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal stem cell disorders characterized by cytologic dysplasia and ineffective hematopoiesis. Although approximately one-third of patients’ disease may progress to acute leukemia, refractory cytopenias are the principal cause of morbidity and mortality in patients withMDS. In fact, approximately two-thirds of patients present with lower-risk disease characterized by hypercellular marrows, with increased rates of apoptosis in the progenitor and differentiated cell compartments in the marrow. Ineffective hematopoiesis arising from abortive maturation leads to peripheral cytopenias. Higher grade or more advanced disease categories are associated with a significant risk of leukemia transformation with a corresponding lower apoptotic index and higher percentage of marrow blasts. Cytokines play important roles in the regulation of normal hematopoiesis, and a balance between the actions of hematopoietic growth factors and myelosuppressive factors is required for optimal production of different hematopoietic cell lineages. Excess production of inhibitory cytokines amplifies ineffective hematopoiesis inherent to theMDS clone. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) is a myelosuppressive cytokine that has been implicated in the hematopoietic suppression in MDS. The plasma levels of TGF-b have been reported to be elevated in some but not all studies and are supported by greater TGF-b immunohistochemical staining in selected studies. Conflicting data may arise from technical limitations of bone marrow immunohistochemical analyses of a secreted protein, as well as the biological heterogeneity of the disease itself. Thus, we investigated the role of TGF-b in MDS by direct examination of receptor signal activation to conclusively determine its role in the pathogenesis of ineffective hematopoiesis in MDS. We determined that the SMAD2 is upregulated and overactivated in MDS bone marrow progenitors, thereby demonstrating sustained TGF-b signal activation in this disease. Because there is conflicting data about upregulation of extracellular TGF-b levels inMDS, we next sought to determine the molecular basis of TGF-b receptor-I overactivation and subsequent SMAD2 phosphorylation/activation in this disease. We observed that SMAD7, a negative regulator of TGF-b receptor-I
Speed Estimation of an Induction Motor Operating in the Nonstationary Mode by Using Rotor Slot Harmonics

In this paper, an analysis of techniques of digital signal processing used for estimating the motor slip and rotational speed of an induction motor operating in stationary or nonstationary condition by using rotor slot harmonics observed in the stator current waveform is presented. The novelty of this paper is related with three topics. First, zoom short time Chirp-Z transform was used to find the fundamental supply frequency intending to improve accuracy without increasing computational complexity. Second, it presents a tool that can be used to identify whether a motor is capable or not of producing principal slot harmonics. Finally, an algorithm was developed to find an optimal window length using rotational speed maximum relative deviation. The use of this approach was analyzed when the motor was powered by a frequency converter driving a variable load and operating in strongly nonstationary conditions. The correctness of the method has been confirmed by experimental test results. Finally, the proposed method was implemented in a conventional sucker-rod pumping unit (25D-67-36-American Petroleum Institute), to estimate the rotational speed and slip when the motor is powered by a frequency converter.
Silent surrender; the multinational corporation in Canada.

First published in 1970, Silent Surrender helped educate a generation of students about Canadian political economy. Kari Levitt details the historical background of foreign investments in Canada, their acceleration since World War II, and the nature of intrusions by multinational corporations into a sovereign state. Silent Surrender was prophetic in predicting that the ultimate consequence of relinquishing control of the Canadian economy to United States business interests would be political disintegration through the balkanization of the country and its eventual piecemeal absorption into the American imperial system. Republished with a new preface by noted scholar Mel Watkins and a postscript by the author, Silent Surrender's basic argument and underlying economic analysis remain remarkably fresh, particularly the question of whether cultural integration into continental American life has proceeded to a point where Canada is no longer a meaningful national community.
Agri-political Organizations in Environmental Governance: Representing Farmer Interests in Regional Partnerships

Investigations of agri-environmental programmes and their implementation often overlook the contribution of agri-political organizations (APOs). They focus instead upon the experiences of individual farmers, or the potential of farmers to be environmental stewards, the strategies or particular policy instruments employed by governments, or the workings of cooperative planning committees at river basin scales. Over the last decade in Australia, the influence and involvement of APOs in initiatives such as regional natural resource planning and the implementation of water quality policies has increased markedly but has remained largely under-researched. This paper indicates the ways these groups are becoming more embedded in the politics and operation of environmental governance and outlines the new and contested roles these groups are now playing in Australian rural landscapes. Using the case of the ongoing implementation of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, the paper explores tensions in the current arrangements and considers implications for ongoing participation of the farming sector in environmental governance. These tensions revolve around challenges to APOs’ traditional dialogic practices; interest-based models of representation; and their capacity to align with and operate within new territorial spaces of policy implementation, such as regions.
Altered glycosylation of acetylcholinesterase in APP (SW) Tg2576 transgenic mice occurs prior to amyloid plaque deposition

Previous studies have shown that a minor glycoform of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is increased in Alzheimer's disease brain and cerebrospinal fluid. This glycoform can be distinguished from other AChE species by its lack of binding to concanavalin A (Con A). In this study, the temporal relationship between AChE glycosylation and Aβ deposition was examined in Tg2576 mice. There was a significant (p < 0.05) difference in AChE glycosylation in Tg2576 mice compared with age‐matched background strain control mice at 4 months of age. This difference in glycosylation was also observed in 8‐ and 12‐month‐old Tg2576 mice. In contrast, Aβ plaques were only seen in the Tg2576 mice at 12 months of age, and were not detected at 4 and 8 months of age. Soluble human‐sequence Aβ was detected as early as 4 months of age in the transgenic mice. The altered AChE glycosylation was due to an increase in a minor AChE isoform, which did not bind Con A, similar to that previously observed to be increased in Alzheimer's disease brain and cerebrospinal fluid. The results demonstrate that in transgenic mice altered AChE glycosylation is associated with very early events in the development of AD‐like pathology. The study supports the possibility that glycosylation may also be a useful biomarker of AD.
Time-to-Build and Aggregate Fluctuations: Some New Evidence

This paper presents maximum likelihood estimates and tests of a model similar to one Kydland and Prescott (1982) suggested. For this purpose, it derives equilibrium laws of motion for a set of aggregate variables as functions of the model's parameters and the innovation to the technology shock. The paper shows that a single unobservable index can explain the variability in the observed series, but identifying the single index with the innovation to the technology shock implies that per capita hours is not well explained. It also shows that time-separable preferences with respect to leisure are consistent with the data. Copyright 1989 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.