Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Streptomyces davawensis JCM 4913 and Heterologous Production of the Unique Antibiotic Roseoflavin

ABSTRACT Streptomyces davawensis JCM 4913 synthesizes the antibiotic roseoflavin, a structural riboflavin (vitamin B2) analog. Here, we report the 9,466,619-bp linear chromosome of S. davawensis JCM 4913 and a 89,331-bp linear plasmid. The sequence has an average G+C content of 70.58% and contains six rRNA operons (16S-23S-5S) and 69 tRNA genes. The 8,616 predicted protein-coding sequences include 32 clusters coding for secondary metabolites, several of which are unique to S. davawensis. The chromosome contains long terminal inverted repeats of 33,255 bp each and atypical telomeres. Sequence analysis with regard to riboflavin biosynthesis revealed three different patterns of gene organization in Streptomyces species. Heterologous expression of a set of genes present on a subgenomic fragment of S. davawensis resulted in the production of roseoflavin by the host Streptomyces coelicolor M1152. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that S. davawensis is a close relative of Streptomyces cinnabarinus, and much to our surprise, we found that the latter bacterium is a roseoflavin producer as well.
Effects of different levels of dietary crude protein and threonine on performance, humoral immune responses and intestinal morphology of broiler chicks

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of different dietary crude protein (CP) and threonine (Thr) levels on the performance, immune responses and jejunal morphology of broiler chicks. A total of 432 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to a 3×3 factorial arrangement of treatments including three different CP dietary levels (90, 95, and 100% of Ross 308 recommendations) and Thr (100, 110, and 120% of Ross specifications) dietary levels. Performance parameters were recorded for the starter (1-12 days), grower (13-24 days) and finisher (25-42 days) periods. Birds were subjected to different antigen inoculations to evaluate antibody responses. At day 42 of age, two randomly-selected birds per replicate were slaughtered to measure carcass traits. Although Thr dietary supplementation had no marked effect on Newcastle antibody titers, particularly the supplementation of Thr up to 110% of Ross specifications improved (p<0.05) antibody titers against sheep red blood cells during both primary and secondary responses. Reduction of dietary CP level resulted in significant decrease in villus height (p<0.05) and crypt depth (p<0.01) in jejunal epithelial cells, but the supplementation of low-CP diets with Thr up to 110 and 120% of the recommended values allowed overcoming these changes. Except for the starter period, reducing dietary CP level to 90% of Ross recommendations had no harmful effects on performance parameters; however, the best values were obtained with diets containing 110% Thr. The present results indicate that it is possible to reduce dietary CP level up to 10% after the starter period without any detrimental impact on growth performance, and dietary Thr supplementation up to 110% of Ross values may compensate for low CP-induced growth delay in broiler chicks.
On the Design of Chaos-Based S-Boxes

Substitution boxes (S-boxes) are critical nonlinear elements to achieve cryptanalytic resistance of modern block and stream ciphers. Given their importance, a rich variety of S-box construction strategies exists. In this paper, S-boxes generated by using chaotic functions (CF) are analyzed to measure their actual resistance to linear cryptanalysis. The aforementioned papers emphasize on the average nonlinearity of the S-box coordinates only, ignoring the rest of the S-box components in the process. Thus, the majority of those studies should be re-evaluated. Integrating such S-boxes in a given cryptosystem should be done with a considerable caution. Furthermore, we show that in the context of nonlinearity optimization problem the profit of using chaos structures is negligible. By using two heuristic methods and starting from pseudo-random S-boxes, we repeatedly reached S-boxes, which significantly outperform all previously published CF-based S-boxes, in those cryptographic terms, which the aforementioned papers utilize for comparison. Moreover, we have linked the multi-armed bandit problem to the problem of maximizing an S-box average coordinate nonlinearity value, which further allowed us to reach near-optimal average coordinate nonlinearity values significantly greater than those known in literature.
The Impact of Customer Experience toward Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of Ciputra World Surabaya

Ciputra World Surabaya is facing a tense competition, especially with the upcoming new shopping malls. Author believes that customer satisfaction and loyalty is the ultimate solutions to maintain the visitors traffic, which can be achieved by encouraging customer experience. The research succeeds to gather 142 respondents using simple random sampling method. Thus, by applying the Path Analysis with Regression, it is able to prove that customer experience has significant impact toward customer satisfaction of Ciputra World Surabaya. Then, customer satisfaction has significant impact toward customer loyalty of Ciputra World Surabaya. Author also tested customer satisfaction as mediating variable, however, the result shows that customer experience has no significant impact toward customer loyalty, mediated by customer satisfaction of Ciputra World Surabaya. Keywords: Customer Experience,Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Ciputra World Surabaya
Transcriptional and Translational Regulation of Zebrafish Connexin 55.5 (zf.Cx.55.5) and Connexin 52.6 (zf.Cx52.6)

Zebrafish connexin 55.5 (zf.Cx55.5) and connexin 52.6 (zf.Cx52.6) show highly restricted expression patterns in the nervous system. Both connexins are confined to subsets of neurons in the fish retina. In order to get initial answers to the questions of pattern definition in neuronal subsets, we elucidated molecular mechanisms responsible for their expression. Different upstream DNA fragments were subcloned into a pGL3-basic vector and transiently transfected in HeLa and N2A cells. Luciferase activity showed the presence of two putative promoter elements in zfCx55.5 and a promoter element in zfCx52.6 that showed different promoter activities in HeLa and N2A cells. Moreover, fusion constructs of zfCx55.5 with EGFP revealed the presence of a new isoform with an additional short exon I.
A role for SNAP‐25 but not VAMPs in store‐mediated Ca2+ entry in human platelets

Store‐mediated Ca2+ entry (SMCE) is a major mechanism for Ca2+ influx in non‐excitable cells. Recently, a conformational coupling mechanism allowing coupling between transient receptor potential channels (TRPCs) and IP3 receptors has been proposed to activate SMCE. Here we have investigated the role of two soluble N‐ethylmaleimide‐sensitive‐factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs), which are involved in membrane trafficking and docking, in SMCE in human platelets. We found that the synaptosome‐associated protein (SNAP‐25) and the vesicle‐associated membrane proteins (VAMP) coimmunoprecipitate with hTRPC1 in platelets. Treatment with botulinum toxin (BoNT) E or with tetanus toxin (TeTx), induced cleavage and inactivation of SNAP‐25 and VAMPs, respectively. BoNTs significantly reduced thapsigargin‐ (TG) and agonist‐evoked SMCE. Treatment with BoNTs once SMCE had been activated decreased Ca2+ entry, indicating that SNAP‐25 is required for the activation and maintenance of SMCE. In contrast, treatment with TeTx had no effect on either the activation or the maintenance of SMCE in platelets. Finally, treatment with BoNT E impaired the coupling between naturally expressed hTRPC1 and IP3 receptor type II in platelets. From these findings we suggest SNAP‐25 has a role in SMCE in human platelets.
Confident Off-Policy Evaluation and Selection through Self-Normalized Importance Weighting

We consider off-policy evaluation in the contextual bandit setting for the purpose of obtaining a robust off-policy selection strategy, where the selection strategy is evaluated based on the value of the chosen policy in a set of proposal (target) policies. We propose a new method to compute a lower bound on the value of an arbitrary target policy given some logged data in contextual bandits for a desired coverage. The lower bound is built around the so-called Self-normalized Importance Weighting (SN) estimator. It combines the use of a semi-empirical Efron-Stein tail inequality to control the concentration and Harris' inequality to control the bias. The new approach is evaluated on a number of synthetic and real datasets and is found to be superior to its main competitors, both in terms of tightness of the confidence intervals and the quality of the policies chosen.
Survivable Probability of SDN-enabled Cloud Networking with Random Physical Link Failure

Software-driven cloud networking is a new paradigm in orchestrating physical resources (CPU, network bandwidth, energy, storage) allocated to network functions, services, and applications, which is commonly modeled as a cross-layer network. This model carries a physical network representing the physical infrastructure, a logical network showing demands, and logical-to-physical node/link mappings. In such networks, a single failure in the physical network may trigger cascading failures in the logical network and disable network services and connectivity. In this paper, we propose an evaluation metric, survivable probability, to evaluate the reliability of such networks under random physical link failure(s). We propose the concept of base protecting spanning tree and prove the necessary and sufficient conditions for its existence and relation to survivability. We then develop mathematical programming formulations for reliable cross-layer network routing design with the maximal reliable probability. Computation results demonstrate the viability of our approach.
An update on prevention and treatment of catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Purpose of review Catheter-related urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most important nosocomial infections. This review summarizes the latest advances in the field of catheter care and the management of catheter-associated UTIs. Recent findings The most efficient methods to prevent catheter-associated UTIs are to avoid unnecessary catheterizations and to remove catheters as soon as possible. The use of different reminder systems and implementation of infection control programs can effectively decrease catheter-associated UTIs, although their introduction can be challenging. There is still no evidence to support the routine use of antimicrobial-impregnated catheters, but the use of hydrophilic-coated catheters for clean intermittent catheterization can effectively reduce infections. Preliminary results with chlorhexidine-coated catheters are promising. In cases of serious catheter-associated UTI in patients with a history of previous antibiotic therapy or healthcare-associated bacteraemia, empirical antibiotic treatment should be initiated with activity against multiresistant uropathogens. Suprapubic catheterization is not superior to urethral catheters in terms of reducing the rate of catheter-related bacteriuria. Summary A technology to prevent catheter-associated UTIs is still not available; however, there are promising results with new approaches such as the use of reminder systems and infection control programs, which can effectively decrease the rate of catheter-associated UTIs. There is evidence supporting the use of hydrophilic coated catheters for clean intermittent catheterization, but an optimal catheter material or coating still has to be developed. Evidence-based catheter management is crucial for every patient in need of a catheter.
Improving automatic bug assignment using time-metadata in term-weighting

Assigning newly reported bugs to project developers is a time-consuming and tedious task for triagers using the traditional manual bug triage process. Previous efforts for creating automatic bug assignment systems use machine learning and information-retrieval techniques. These approaches commonly use tf-idf, a statistical computation technique for weighting terms based on term frequency. However, tf-idf does not consider the metadata, such as the time frame at which a term was used, when calculating the weight of the terms. This study proposes an alternate term-weighting technique to improve the accuracy of automatic bug assignment approaches that use a term-weighting technique. This technique includes the use of metadata in addition to the statistical computation to calculate the term weights. Moreover, it restricts the set of terms used to only nouns. It was found that when using only nouns and the proposed term-weighting technique, the accuracy of an automatic bug assignment approach improves from 12 to 49% over tf-idf for three open-source projects.
Automatic verification of implementations of large circuits against HDL specifications

This paper addresses the problem of verifying the correctness of gate-level implementations of large synchronous sequential circuits with respect to their higher level specifications in a hardware description language (HDL). The verification strategy is to verify containment of the finite state machine (FSM) represented by the HDL description in the gate-level FSM by computing pairs of compatible states. This formulation of the verification problem dissociates the verification process from the specification of initial states, whose encoding may be unknown or obscured during optimization and also enables verification of reset circuitry. To make verification of large circuits with merged data path and control tractable, the concept of strong containment is introduced. This is a conservative approach which exploits correspondence between data path-registers in the two descriptions without requiring any correspondence between the control units. We also present an important result and associated proof that computation of pairs of equivalent or compatible states can be achieved by considering subsets of the circuit outputs. Consequently, verification of circuits with large and diverse input-output sets, which was previously intractable due to lack of a single effective variable order for the binary decision diagrams (BDD's), is now feasible. Experimental results are presented for the verification of several industry level circuits.
Marketing performance measurement and firm performance Evidence from the European high-technology sector

Purpose – The research aims to test whether the ability to measure marketing performance affects the actual performance of firms, in the context of the European high‐tech sector. It also aims to test whether performance‐reporting frequency and size of marketing budget mediate the relationship between measurement ability and performance.Design/methodology/approach – Survey responses collected from 157 marketers were supplemented with firm performance data.Findings – Results show that marketing performance measurement ability positively impacts firm performance and that reporting frequency mediates this relationship.Research limitations/implications – More attention should be given to the activities that are measured rather than the metrics in use – which receive much attention in the literature. Current interest in marketing dashboards may be overstated.Practical implications – Enhanced ability to account for marketing leads not only to improved firm performance, but also to greater regard for marketing at.
Entrepreneur as "End"repreneur: The Intention to Retire

This research addresses a gap in the entrepreneurial research literature by exploring the retirement of entrepreneurs. We adopt the term “endrepreneur”, referring to the entrepreneur who faces issues beyond the startup phase. What informs an endrepreneur’s intention to retire? Perhaps retirement is a thoughtful, meaningful path illuminated by objective indicators and proactivity. Or, perhaps the endrepreneur is reactive, driven by the notion of the ‘right’ age to retire, ready or not. Using the theory of planned behavior and with contributions from the fields of entrepreneurial exit, business valuation, and retirement, this research contributes to an understudied area. We enlist data from a 2005 retirement survey of business owners by the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Consistent with previous studies of exit intention, the intention to retire is influenced by subjective factors, in this case a generational cohort and the belief that one can control an exit using a phase out period. We do not find support for the intention to retire using objective factors such as company profitability or barriers to exit. We tentatively suggest that the intention to retire is informed by subjective factors and perhaps there is a reliance on the subjective clues of the retirements of wage and salaried workers. Acknowledging and understanding this significant subset of exit by endrepreneurs from their companies has implications for business owners themselves, their employees, policy makers, business advisors, and the educators of students who may start, work for, or else advise smaller companies.
Identyfikacja okresu kryzysu z wykorzystaniem procedury diagnozowania stanów rynku

The aim of the paper was a direct identification of crisis periods on the Polish and, for comparison, on the U.S. stock markets. The sample period begun on May 2004, and ended on April 30, 2013, and it included the 2007 U.S. subprime crisis period. The Pagan and Sossounov (2003) statistical procedure of dividing market states into bullish and bearish markets, based on monthly logarithmic returns of the main indexes WIG and S&P500, was used. The evidence is that: (1) June 2007–Feb 2009 was the crisis period on the WSE and (2) Oct 2007–Feb 2009 was the crisis period on the NYSE, and the last period was the common one for both countries. Moreover, our results confirmed the effect of increasing cross-market correlations in the crisis period. To the best of authors’ knowledge, no such research has been undertaken jointly for the Polish and the U.S. capital markets. As there is no unanimity in determining the global crisis period among 710 Joanna Olbryś, Elżbieta Majewska the researchers, a formal statistical detection of crises is certainly well-founded. Especially, it enables to examine various relationships and linkages among international stock markets, taking into consideration the pre-, post-, and crisis periods.
A Method for Using Discounted Utterances in Spontaneous Conversation

Using Discounted Utterances (DUs) in spontaneous conversation by applying text mining technology, extraction, and evaluation, we focused on DUs where values were buried in previous conversations. We discovered DU potentials by reconsidering them through human-computer interaction. Onlinechat experiments clarified DU features and demonstrated our system’s importance. We found DUs involving (1) experiences shared by the subjects, (2) subjects’ unique experiences, concerns, or beliefs, and (3) apparent unimportance or unrecognized potential. Results of the experiments showed our evaluation method to be appropriate for calculating DU importance when DUs involving (3) were valued significantly lower than (1) and (2). Experiments also suggested that most DUs extracted by the system were not indeed completely ignored but included subjects’ unique stories involving main contexts. Such stories were based on subjects’ unique experiences and may be useful for helping subjects’ metacognition. The system may also enable nonsubjects to infer subjects and their thinking.
Differences in genetic and environmental variation in adult body mass index by sex , age , time period , and region : an individual-based pooled analysis of 40 twin cohorts

Background: Genes and the environment contribute to variation in adult body mass index [BMI (in kg/m)], but factors modifying these variance components are poorly understood. Objective: We analyzed genetic and environmental variation in BMI between men and women from young adulthood to old age from the 1940s to the 2000s and between cultural-geographic regions representing high (North America and Australia), moderate (Europe), and low (East Asia) prevalence of obesity. Design: We used genetic structural equation modeling to analyze BMI in twins $20 y of age from 40 cohorts representing 20 countries (140,379 complete twin pairs). Results: The heritability of BMI decreased from 0.77 (95% CI: 0.77, 0.78) and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.74, 0.75) in men and women 20– 29 y of age to 0.57 (95% CI: 0.54, 0.60) and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.53, 0.65) in men 70–79 y of age and women 80 y of age, respectively. The relative influence of unique environmental factors correspondingly increased. Differences in the sets of genes affecting BMI in men and women increased from 20–29 to 60–69 y of age. Mean BMI and variances in BMI increased from the 1940s to the 2000s and were greatest in North America and Australia, followed by Europe and East Asia. However, heritability estimates were largely similar over measurement years and between regions. There was no evidence of environmental factors shared by co-twins affecting BMI. Conclusions: The heritability of BMI decreased and differences in the sets of genes affecting BMI in men and women increased from young adulthood to old age. The heritability of BMI was largely similar between cultural-geographic regions and measurement years, despite large differences in mean BMI and variances in BMI. Our results show a strong influence of genetic factors on BMI, especially in early adulthood, regardless of the obesity level in the population. Am J Clin Nutr doi: https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.117. 153643.
Neural Graphics Pipeline for Controllable Image Generation

We present Neural Graphics Pipeline (NGP), a hybrid generative model that brings together neural and traditional image formation models. NGP generates coarse 3D models that are fed into neural rendering modules to produce view-specific interpretable 2D maps, which are then composited into the final output image using a traditional image formation model. Our approach offers control over image generation by providing direct handles controlling illumination and camera parameters, in addition to control over shape and appearance variations. The key challenge is to learn these controls through unsupervised training that links generated coarse 3D models with unpaired real images via neural and traditional (e.g., Blinn-Phong) rendering functions without establishing an explicit correspondence between them. We evaluate our hybrid modeling framework, compare with neural-only generation methods (namely, DCGAN, LSGAN, WGAN-GP, VON, and SRNs), report improvement in FID scores against real images, and demonstrate that NGP supports direct controls common in traditional forward rendering. Code, data, and trained models will be released on acceptance.