Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epstein-Barr Virus BALF1 Is a BCL-2-Like Antagonist of the Herpesvirus Antiapoptotic BCL-2 Proteins

ABSTRACT Cellular BCL-2 family proteins can inhibit or induce programmed cell death in part by counteracting the activity of other BCL-2 family members. All sequenced gammaherpesviruses encode a BCL-2 homologue that potently inhibits apoptosis and apparently escapes some of the regulatory mechanisms that govern the functions of their cellular counterparts. Examples of these protective proteins include BHRF1 of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and KSBcl-2 of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, also known as human herpesvirus 8. The gamma-1 subgroup of these viruses, such as EBV, encodes a second BCL-2 homologue. We have now found that this second BCL-2 homologue encoded by EBV, BALF1, inhibits the antiapoptotic activity of EBV BHRF1 and of KSBcl-2 in several transfected cell lines. However, BALF1 failed to inhibit the cellular BCL-2 family member, BCL-xL. Thus, BALF1 acts as a negative regulator of the survival function of BHRF1, similar to the counterbalance observed between cellular BCL-2 family members. Unlike the cellular BCL-2 family antagonists, BALF1 lacked proapoptotic activity and could not be converted into a proapoptotic factor in a manner similar to cellular BCL-2 proteins by caspase cleavage or truncation of the N terminus. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments and immunofluorescence assays suggest that a minimal amount, if any, of the BHRF1 and BALF1 proteins colocalizes inside cells, suggesting that mechanisms other than direct interaction explain the suppressive function of BALF1.
Targeting of Proteins Derived from Self‐Processing Polyproteins Containing Multiple Signal Sequences

The 18aa 2A self‐cleaving oligopeptide from foot‐and‐mouth disease virus can be used for co‐expression of multiple, discrete proteins from a single ORF. 2A mediates a co‐translational cleavage at its own C‐terminus and is proposed to manipulate the ribosome into skipping the synthesis of a specific peptide bond (producing a discontinuity in the peptide backbone), rather than being involved in proteolysis. To explore the utility of the system to target discrete processing products, self‐processing polyproteins comprising fluorescent proteins flanking 2A were constructed, permutating both the type of signal sequence and the location within the polyprotein. A polyprotein comprising a protein bearing an N‐terminal signal sequence, 2A, then a protein lacking any signal sequence, was constructed. Interestingly, both proteins were translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum. Despite the discontinuity in the peptide backbone, the mammalian ribosome:translocon complex did not disassemble – the second protein (lacking any signal) ‘slipstreamed’ through the translocon formed by the first (signal‐bearing) protein. These polyprotein systems provide a novel method of targeting proteins to different subcellular sites by transfection with a plasmid encoding a single ORF. The inclusion of a fluorescent reporter enables visualisation of expression levels, whilst inclusion of a selectable marker enables stable cell‐lines to be established rapidly.
Quantitation of alpha-factor internalization and response during the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle

The alpha-factor pheromone binds to specific cell surface receptors on Saccharomyces cerevisiae a cells. The pheromone is then internalized, and cell surface receptors are down-regulated. At the same time, a signal is transmitted that causes changes in gene expression and cell cycle arrest. We show that the ability of cells to internalize alpha-factor is constant throughout the cell cycle, a cells are also able to respond to pheromone throughout the cycle even though there is cell cycle modulation of the expression of two pheromone-inducible genes, FUS1 and STE2. Both of these genes are expressed less efficiently near or just after the START point of the cell cycle in response to alpha-factor. For STE2, the basal level of expression is modulated in the same manner.
GIS and Mapping

Abstract The widespread availability of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer mapping software allows individuals with little or no cartographic knowledge and experience to prepare maps for planning purposes. While these maps are often satisfactory, they may not fully serve their intended purposes. This article identifies some of the most common mistakes that planners make in preparing maps and suggests ways to avoid them. It introduces some key considerations in map making and offers a series of practical tips that will help planners produce more effective maps.
Identification of Tisp40 as an Essential Regulator of Renal Tubulointerstitial Fibrosis via TGF-β/Smads Pathway

Background: Tisp40, a transcription factor of the CREB/CREM family, is involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and other biological functions, but its role in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis is unknown. Methods: In our study, we investigated the effects of Tisp40 on extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the underlying molecular mechanisms in transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-stimulated TCMK-1 cells by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence in vitro, and further explored the role of Tisp40 on renal fibrosis induced by ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) by qPCR, Western blot analysis, hydroxyproline analysis, Masson trichrome staining and immunohistochemistry staining in vivo. Results: The data showed that Tisp40 was upregulated in a model of renal fibrosis induced by I/R injury (IRI). Upon IRI, Tisp40-deficient mice showed attenuated renal fibrosis compared with wild-type mice. Furthermore, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin, E-cadherin, fibronectin, and collagen I was suppressed. Tisp40 overexpression aggravated ECM accumulation and EMT in the TGF-β-stimulated TCMK-1 cell line, whereas the opposite occurred in cells treated with small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting Tisp40. Importantly, it is changes in the Smad pathway that attenuate renal fibrosis. Conclusion: These findings suggest that Tisp40 plays a critical role in the TGF-β/ Smads pathway involved in this process. Hence, Tisp40 could be a useful therapeutic target in the fight against renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis.
Data journalism: an outlook for the future processes

Data journalism is a rather new format of reporting news stories online, which utilizes open data as the basis of stories and illustrates findings visually. The data journalism creation process and the way the information is being presented are very different to that of traditional print journalism. The objectives of this research are to identify current data journalism creation processes, forecast the future process outlook and to discuss journalists' role in the process. There has been very little academic research conducted in the field of data journalism previously. Therefore, the literature review within this thesis has a wide scope and is explorative in nature while the findings serve as the basis for creating a future model for data journalism creation processes. The viability of the created future model has been tested by interviewing three Finnish data journalism professionals. Suggested streamlined process model for the future of data journalism proposes that in the future the two most work-intensive data journalism creation phases, data manipulation and story visualization, will be outsourced to organizations specialized in these phases. This model is generally accepted as a viable future scenario by the professionals interviewed. However, there is some concern about communication between journalists and the institution to which the data journalism creation process is being outsourced to. This notion of the importance of communication prompted the creation of two more models that take communication more into consideration: (1) data journalism consultancy model and (2) outsourced chain model for data journalism. Together these two models suggest four approaches for producing data journalism in the future, these are: (a) an in-house data journalism team, (b) partner up with an organization specialized in creating data journalism and outsource the whole data journalism creation process except story creation to it, (c) outsource each phase to a separate phase provider and (d) a hybrid model of the first and last mentioned approach. The role that journalists will have in the data journalism creation process of the future will alter according to which the model media organization decides to adopt.
Service Employees' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Customer-Oriented Behaviors: An Accountability Theory Perpective

Many studies have argued and successfully verified the positive effects of leader-member exchange on organizational citizenship behaviors, using justice theory. However, we argue that accountability theory provides a prospective view of an employee's organizational citizenship behaviors in a given leader-member exchange relationship, while justice theory provides a retrospective view. In addition, we contend that the employee's customer-oriented behaviors should be treated as a type of organizational citizenship behaviors directed to customers. Based on responses from 256 service employees in 54 full-service restaurants in a metropolitan city in Korea, we show the positive effects of two dimensions of leader-member exchange on two types of organizational citizenship behaviors and customer-oriented behaviors, using multivariate analysis of variance. The new approach to understanding the relationship between leader-member exchange and organizational citizenship behaviors provides valuable insights to academic researchers as well as industry practitioners.
Devolution and Economic Governance in the UK: Uneven Geographies, Uneven Capacities?

Recent academic debates have suggested that the capacity of any given territory to embed increasingly global processes of economic development partly rests on sub-national social, cultural and institutional forms and supports. In this context, devolution has the potential to alter the institutional architecture of the UK state and this paper interrogates the various ways in which the devolved bodies in the four territories--England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales--have begun to remake their institutional architectures of economic development. The paper also draws out some initial implications of these changes for the emerging uneven geographies and uneven capacities of economic development with the UK, post-devolution. The paper concludes by linking these observations to academic debates on the 'new regionalism'.
Phospholipid Transport via Mitochondria

In eukaryotic cells, complex membrane structures called organelles are highly developed to exert specialized functions. Mitochondria are one of such organelles consisting of the outer and inner membranes (OM and IM) with characteristic protein and phospholipid compositions. Maintaining proper phospholipid compositions of the membranes is crucial for mitochondrial integrity, thereby contributing to normal cell activities. As cellular locations for phospholipid synthesis are restricted to specific compartments such as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane and the mitochondrial inner membrane, newly synthesized phospholipids have to be transported and distributed properly from the ER or mitochondria to other cellular membranes. Although understanding of molecular mechanisms of phospholipid transport are much behind those of protein transport, recent studies using yeast as a model system began to provide intriguing insights into phospholipid exchange between the ER and mitochondria as well as between the mitochondrial OM and IM. In this review, we summarize the latest findings of phospholipid transport via mitochondria and discuss the implicated molecular mechanisms.
Relationship Between Traditional Games and the Intensity of Emotions Experienced by Participants

Purpose: The aims of this study were to analyze the intensity of emotions (positive, negative, or ambiguous) produced when players took part in traditional games with a different social structure and to examine the explanations given by those participants for these emotional experiences. Method: Participants (N = 556) were recruited from 4 Spanish universities. After taking part in each of the games, they were asked to complete the Games and Emotions Questionnaire to indicate the intensity of their emotional experiences and to explain what, in their view, had led to the strongest emotion felt. Results: The application of a mixed-methods approach identified statistically significant differences in relation to 3 variables. These were (a) the type of emotion, (b) motor domain, and (c) type of result (win, loss, and noncompetitive). The intensity of positive emotions was higher in cooperative games and lower in individual games. Comments referring to negative emotions were more frequent as the social structure of games became more complex (minimal presence of individual games and predominance of cooperation-opposition games). Winning was associated with the highest intensity ratings of positive and ambiguous emotions, whereas being defeated produced the highest values for negative emotions. The intensity ratings for negative emotions were lower in noncompetitive games than in games where players lost. Conclusion: The results confirm that traditional games can play a key role in relation to the emotional facets of physical education.
Is health care really a luxury in OECD countries? Evidence from alternative price deflators

This article examines whether real Health-care Expenditure (HE) is a luxury or necessity for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 1972 to 2004 within a panel unit root and panel cointegration framework. To realize this objective, we regress HE on real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the proportion of the population aged over 65 (P65) and a time trend (T). We first present results for 18 countries where real HE per capita is obtained using a general GDP deflator. For these countries, we find that health care is a luxury for just one country. Next, we present results for eight countries where real HE is obtained using a specific health-care price index. When the general GDP deflator is replaced with a specific health-care price index, at least one of the GDP, P65 or T coefficients for the eight countries changes in a reasonably dramatic fashion, suggesting that the use of the GDP deflator introduces bias into the regression. We find that HE is a necessity in all eight countries. Given that the reliability of the GDP deflator results is questionable, on the basis of the results for the eight countries, we conclude that HE is a necessity.
Entrepreneurial Team Development in Academic Spinouts: An Examination of Team Heterogeneity

This article examines the dynamics of entrepreneurial teams as they evolve through the different stages of a spin–out process. Using a unique, hand–collected set of data covering all team members in 10 cases, an in–depth analysis of the heterogeneity of team members’ experience and perception of the strategic orientation needed to attain different milestones in the spin–out process was performed. Our findings suggest that teams evolve over time and change in composition, and therefore, they cannot be studied as immutable entities. At the start of the venture formation, we introduced a new team role, the privileged witness, potentially specific for spinouts. Analysis of the teams indicates that the team's heterogeneity changes as it evolves through the different stages of the spin–out process. In particular, we found that new team members brought in different kinds of experience; however, they did not introduce a different view on doing business from the initial team members.
The Measurement and Stability of State Citizen Ideology

Does state political ideology change over time? Brace et al. (2004, 537) say no, based on their analysis of three longitudinal measures of state citizen ideology: Berry et al.'s (1998) indicator that relies on election results and congressional roll call votes, and two indicators that Brace et al. construct from ideological self-placement items, one using GSS and ANES survey results, and the other employing surveys conducted by CBS/New York Times. The authors imply that the ideological stability they detect precludes the possibility that state citizen ideology influences state policy. However, this implication stems from Brace et al.'s definition of meaningful ideological change as differences in the relative ideology of states over time rather than absolute changes in ideology within states. We contend that this argument is both logically and methodologically flawed. Brace et al. maintain that their CBS/New York Times and GSS/ANES indicators are valid measures of state citizen ideology, but that the Berry et al. indicator is not. To assess this claim, it is crucial to distinguish between ideological self-identification (or symbolic ideology) and policy mood (or operational ideology). We find that the Berry et al. measure is a valid indicator of policy mood, but that it is invalid as a measure of self-identification. In contrast, the CBS/New York Times and GSS/ANES measures are invalid as indicators of policy mood, and while they are valid indicators of self-identified ideology, they are highly unreliable. Although a measure of self-identified ideology can be useful for answering some research questions, we contend that an indicator of policy mood is more appropriate when studying the impact of public opinion on public policy, and we reiterate our confidence in using the Berry et al. (1998) measure for that purpose.
Modeling the Mortgage-Treasury Spread

This is a discussion of the fundamentals underlying a proprietary thirty-year conventional perfect current-coupon projection model. This model measures the richness or cheapness of the current-coupon mortgage as a function of the fundamental variables that influence mortgage pricing: the level of rates, the shape of the curve, and volatility. It is designed not to provide an automatic trading rule but rather to serve as a starting point for looking at the mortgage-Treasury spread in a consistent fashion. While the model has a number of limitations, a performance study using two different consistent trading rules finds quite favorable results: the model performed well in 1993, 1994, and 1995.
Impact of Remittances on Economic growth in selected Asian and Former Soviet Union countries

Recent increase in the international remittance transfers from developed to developing countries has caught great attention among academic scholars and policymakers. This paper investigates the potential impact of these workers’ remittances on the long-term economic growth of recipient countries. The results of the empirical regression analysis indicate that remittances have positive effect on the per capita income growth of 10 selected countries. Furthermore, the paper investigates the channels through which these worker’ remittances can have positive impact on the economic growth. The results suggest that remittances have no impact on physical capital accumulation but positive impact on human capital accumulation in these countries.
Testing for Convergence between UK Regional House Prices

DRAKE L. (1995) Testing for convergence between UK regional house prices, Reg. Studies 29, 357–366. This paper uses the Kalman filter/time varying parameter estimation technique to test for convergence between UK regional house prices. This issue is significant given the historical disparities in regional house price inflation rates and the unprecedented downturn in both UK and most regional house prices in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The evidence suggests that there are clear regional differences in the pattern of UK house price movements. In particular, house prices in the North and Scotland show evidence of greater divergence from prices in the Rest of the South East region than do the Southern and Midlands regions. DRAKE L. (1995) Une analyse pour determiner la convergence des prix du marche immobilier regionaux au Royaume-Uni, Reg. Studies 29, 357–366. Cet article se sert de la technique dite Kalman Filter afin de determiner la convergence des prix du marche immobilier regionaux au Royaume-Uni. C.
Use of effective dose

International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 103 provided a detailed explanation of the purpose and use of effective dose and equivalent dose to individual organs and tissues. Effective dose has proven to be a valuable and robust quantity for use in the implementation of protection principles. However, questions have arisen regarding practical applications, and a Task Group has been set up to consider issues of concern. This paper focusses on two key proposals developed by the Task Group that are under consideration by ICRP: (1) confusion will be avoided if equivalent dose is no longer used as a protection quantity, but regarded as an intermediate step in the calculation of effective dose. It would be more appropriate for limits for the avoidance of deterministic effects to the hands and feet, lens of the eye, and skin, to be set in terms of the quantity, absorbed dose (Gy) rather than equivalent dose (Sv). (2) Effective dose is in widespread use in medical practice as a measure of risk, thereby going beyond its intended purpose. While doses incurred at low levels of exposure may be measured or assessed with reasonable reliability, health effects have not been demonstrated reliably at such levels but are inferred. However, bearing in mind the uncertainties associated with risk projection to low doses or low dose rates, it may be considered reasonable to use effective dose as a rough indicator of possible risk, with the additional consideration of variation in risk with age, sex and population group.
Incorporating undesirable outputs into Malmquist TFP indices with an unbalanced data panel of Chinese power plants

In this article, we examine the effects of undesirable outputs on Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) indices. Our empirical work uses an unbalanced panel of 1626 real observations on coal-fired power plants in China during 1996–2002. In order to meet the requirement of a balanced panel for calculating the Malmquist indices, an innovative fake unit approach has been introduced. To the authors' knowledge, no other published papers on TFP change have used this method before. Our final results show that (1) the original growth path of the Chinese electricity till 2002 heavily depended upon an increase of resource input and (2) the environmental TFP change of Chinese coal-fired power plants was about 2–3% (at least with respect to SO2), which mainly comes from technical change rather than efficiency change during the report period.
Macro and financial markets: The memory of an elephant?

Macroeconomic and aggregate financial series share an unconventional type of nonlinear dynamics. Existing techniques (like co-integration) model these dynamics incompletely, hence generating seemingly paradoxical results. To avoid this, we provide a methodology to disentangle the long-run relation between variables from their own dynamics, and illustrate with two applications. First, in the forward-premium puzzle, adding a component quantifying the persistent nonlinear dynamics of exchange rates yields substantial predictability and makes the forward-premium term insignificant. Second, S&P 500 grows in a pattern of momentum followed by reversal, forming long cycles around a trend given by GDP, a stable non-breaking relation since WWII.