Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Schizosaccharomyces pombe Replication Inhibitor Spd1 Regulates Ribonucleotide Reductase Activity and dNTPs by Binding to the Large Cdc22 Subunit*

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is an essential enzyme that provides the cell with a balanced supply of deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates for DNA replication and repair. Mutations that affect the regulation of RNR in yeast and mammalian cells can lead to genetic abnormalities and cell death. We have expressed and purified the components of the RNR system in fission yeast, the large subunit Cdc22p, the small subunit Suc22p, and the replication inhibitor Spd1p. It was proposed (Liu, C., Powell, K. A., Mundt, K., Wu, L., Carr, A. M., and Caspari, T. (2003) Genes Dev. 17, 1130-1140) that Spd1 is an RNR inhibitor, acting by anchoring the Suc22p inside the nucleus during G1 phase. Using in vitro assays with highly purified proteins we have demonstrated that Spd1 indeed is a very efficient inhibitor of fission yeast RNR, but acting on Cdc22p. Furthermore, biosensor technique showed that Spd1p binds to the Cdc22p with a KD of 2.4 μm, whereas the affinity to Suc22p is negligible. Therefore, Spd1p inhibits fission yeast RNR activity by interacting with the Cdc22p. Similar to the situation in budding yeast, logarithmically growing fission yeast increases the dNTP pools 2-fold after 3 h of incubation in the UV mimetic 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide. This increase is smaller than the increase observed in budding yeast but of the same order as the dNTP pool increase when synchronous Schizosaccharomyces pombe cdc10 cells are going from G1 to S-phase.
The inhibitory effect of microRNA-146a expression on bone destruction in collagen-induced arthritis.

OBJECTIVE MicroRNA, a class of noncoding RNA, play a role in human diseases. MicroRNA-146a (miR-146a) is a negative regulator of immune and inflammatory responses, and is strongly expressed in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovium and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). This study was undertaken to examine whether miR-146a expression inhibits osteoclastogenesis, and whether administration of miR-146a prevents joint destruction in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). METHODS PBMCs from healthy volunteers were isolated and seeded in culture plates. The following day, double-stranded miR-146a was transfected and cultured in the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor and either tumor necrosis factor α or RANKL. After 3 weeks, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive multinucleated cells were counted. Three days after miR-146a culture, the expression of c-Jun, nuclear factor of activated T cells c1 (NF-ATc1), PU.1, and TRAP was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. After the onset of distinct arthritis in mice with CIA, double-stranded miR-146a or nonspecific double-stranded RNA was administered twice by intravenous injection. Radiographic and histologic examinations were performed at 4 weeks. RESULTS The number of TRAP-positive multinucleated cells in human PBMCs was significantly reduced by miR-146a in a dose-dependent manner. The expression of c-Jun, NF-ATc1, PU.1, and TRAP in PBMCs was significantly down-regulated by miR-146a. Administration of miR-146a prevented joint destruction in mice with CIA, although it did not completely ameliorate inflammation. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that expression of miR-146a inhibits osteoclastogenesis and that administration of double-stranded miR-146a prevents joint destruction in arthritic mice. Administration of miR-146a has potential as a novel therapeutic target for bone destruction in RA.
High-Risk Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection and Cervical Cancer Prevention in Britain: Evidence of Differential Uptake of Interventions from a Probability Survey

Background: The third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3) provides an opportunity to explore high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and uptake of cervical screening and HPV vaccination in the general population. Methods: Natsal-3, a probability sample survey of men and women ages 16 to 74, resident in Britain, interviewed 8,869 women in 2010 to 2012. We explored risk factors for HR-HPV (in urine from 2,569 sexually experienced women ages 16 to 44), nonattendance for cervical screening in the past 5 years, and noncompletion of HPV catch-up vaccination. Results: HR-HPV was associated with increasing numbers of lifetime partners, younger age, increasing area-level deprivation, and smoking. Screening nonattendance was associated with younger and older age, increasing area-level deprivation (age-adjusted OR 1.91, 95% confidence interval, 1.48–2.47 for living in most vs. least deprived two quintiles), Asian/Asian British ethnicity (1.96, 1.32–2.90), smoking (1.97, 1.57–2.47), and reporting no partner in the past 5 years (2.45, 1.67–3.61 vs. 1 partner) but not with HR-HPV (1.35, 0.79–2.31). Lower uptake of HPV catch-up vaccination was associated with increasing area-level deprivation, non-white ethnicity, smoking, and increasing lifetime partners. Conclusions: Socioeconomic markers and smoking were associated with HR-HPV positivity, nonattendance for cervical screening, and noncompletion of catch-up HPV vaccination. Impact: The cervical screening program needs to engage those missing HPV catch-up vaccination to avoid a potential widening of cervical cancer disparities in these cohorts. As some screening nonattenders are at low risk for HR-HPV, tailored approaches may be appropriate to increase screening among higher-risk women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(5); 842–53. ©2015 AACR.
Quality of Life Improvements Attributed to Combination Therapy with Oral and Topical Mesalazine in Mild-to-Moderately Active Ulcerative Colitis

Background/Aim: To investigate patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in data collected from a multinational randomized double-blind controlled trial comparing oral mesalazine (4 g) + topical mesalazine enema (1 g) to oral mesalazine alone (4 g). Methods: HRQoL was collected using the EQ-5D at baseline and weeks 2, 4 and 8. The EQ-5D assesses mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Scores from each dimension were reported individually, and converted into a weighted health state which reflects an individual’s perception of their health condition. Results: At week 4, a significant HRQoL improvement was observed for patients on mesalazine enemas compared to placebo enemas, with EQ-5D scores of 0.906 and 0.838, respectively (p < 0.05). Mesalazine enema was found to reduce the probability of impairment at week 4 for mobility (p = 0.049) and anxiety/depression (p = 0.048), and was of borderline significance for pain/discomfort (p = 0.053); there was also an increased probability of influencing HRQoL changes for mobility (p < 0.005), usual activities (p < 0.005), pain/discomfort (p < 0.005) and anxiety/depression (p < 0.005), based on reported HRQoL problems at baseline. Conclusions: Including 1 g mesalazine enemas with 4 g oral mesalazine significantly improved HRQoL in patients with active ulcerative colitis. The improvement in QoL of patients with UC preceded clinical remission, and this underlines the importance of including QoL instruments in clinical studies.
Reduced temperature alters Pseudomonas exotoxin A entry into the mouse LM cell

The movement of Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE) into the cytoplasm of mouse LM fibroblasts was followed by using inhibition of protein synthesis as a biochemical index of toxin activity; biotinyl-PE and avidin-gold colloids were used for electron microscopy. At 37 degrees C both specific antitoxin and pronase-trypsin protected cells against PE toxicity when added within seconds of warming cells, whereas methylamine was protective when added during the first 7 min of endocytosis. Lowering the temperature to 19 degrees C afforded protection when the temperature transition was accomplished within 15 min of the original endocytic event. These data suggest that PE enters an acidic compartment before reaching a step blocked by shifting cells from 37 to 19 degrees C. PE expressed toxicity for LM cells at 19 degrees C, but at a concentration 1 order of magnitude higher than that required at 37 degrees C. At 19 degrees C, antitoxin or trypsin-pronase protection was rapidly ablated. In contrast cells were fully protected by methylamine for 90 min. Using electron microscopy we demonstrated that toxin moved normally (30 s) to coated areas at 19 degrees C, but remained at this site for up to 20 min before being internalized. The majority of the toxin internalized at 19 degrees C remained in endosomes or in Golgi-associated vesicles and was not delivered to lysosomes. The results suggest that, under physiological conditions (37 degrees C), PE rapidly enters cells through coated areas, moves to an acidic compartment (i.e., the endosome), and then probably to the Golgi region en route to lysosomes. The evidence suggests that movement of toxin from endosomes or Golgi vesicles to lysosomes is blocked at 19 degrees C. We hypothesize that the active form of PE enters the cytosol, where it expresses its toxicity during fusion of Golgi-derived, toxin-laden vesicles with lysosomes.
Environmental marketing strategy effects on market-based assets

Worsening environmental problems have prompted firms to integrate ecological values and ideals into their management processes and marketing strategies as part of developing sustainable models of business excellence. This leads to the question: Does it really pay to integrate sustainability into business processes? If so, how does it pay? By employing the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and market-based assets, this study empirically examines the effect of environmental marketing strategy on market-based assets and the moderating effect of strategic proactivity on the above relationships. This study focuses on two important dimensions of market-based assets: relational assets and intellectual assets. By using survey data collected from chief executive officers of publicly listed firms in China, this study finds that an environmental marketing strategy contributes to the increase in relational and intellectual market-based assets, which in turn contributes to better firm performance. Strategic proactivity positively moderates the effect of the environmental marketing strategy on relational market-based assets.
Exploring Job Satisfaction in Private and Public Employment: Empirical Evidence from Greece

This paper analyses subjective job satisfaction (JS) responses by employees in the public and private sectors of the Greek labour market. Panel data covering the period 1995-2001 and a random effects ordered probit model are used for estimation purposes. The results of the econometric estimation show that a substantial JS differential exists between the two sectors, in every JS domain and always in favour of public employment. A typical ordered decomposition analysis indicates that about one-third of the difference in expected JS can be explained by differences in employee characteristics and two-thirds by unobserved sector-specific inbuilt features. The comparison of wage reductions, which a representative employee will be prepared to endure in order to avoid employment in the private sector, reveals that the regularity of working schedules is appreciated more than any other facet of JS. The obtained results enhance the existing apparatus for evaluating government policies in the labour market.
Prediction of protein allergenicity based on signal-processing bioinformatics approach

Current bioinformatics tools accomplish high accuracies in classifying allergenic protein sequences with high homology and generally perform poorly with low homology protein sequences. Although some homologous regions explained Immunoglobulin E (IgE) cross-reactivity in groups of allergens, no universal molecular structure could be associated with allergenicity. In addition, studies have showed that cross-reactivity is not directly linked to the homology between protein sequences. Therefore, a new homology independent method needs to be developed to determine if a protein is an allergen or not. The aim of this study is therefore to differentiate sets of allergenic and non-allergenic proteins using a signal-processing based bioinformatics approach. In this paper, a new method was proposed for characterisation and classification of allergenic protein sequences. For this method hydrophobicity amino acid index was used to encode proteins to numerical sequences and Discrete Fourier Transform to extract features for each protein. Finally, a classifier was constructed based on Support Vector Machines. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method 857 allergen and 1000 non-allergen proteins were collected from UniProt online database. The results obtained from the proposed method yielded: MCC: 0.752 ± 0.007, Specificity: 0.912 ± 0.005, Sensitivity: 0.835 ± 0.008 and Total Accuracy: 87.65% ± 0.004.
Model predictive control for reactive power management in transmission connected distribution grids

In this work a multi-objective model predictive control for reactive power management in transmission connected distribution grids with high share of wind power is presented. The proposed control utilizes reactive power capabilities of wind farms and tap-changer positions in order to improve distribution grid operation. Control signals namely tap-changer positions and reactive power set-points are smoothed over the forecast horizon. Further possible optimization objectives are power loss reduction, voltage profile smoothing and complying with reactive power exchange limits with the transmission grid. A mixed-integer non-linear optimal power flow problem (MINLP-OPF) is formulated incorporating grid operation limits. The performance is evaluated on a real German 110-kV distribution grid with 1.6 GW wind power for one year. With the proposed control, reactive power exchange within allowable limits is increased from 58.3% to 94.5%, compared to a reference operation where only tap-changer positions are utilized for loss reduction with a single time-step optimization.
Panel data modelling and the tax-spend controversy in the euro zone

This article attempts to differentiate between the debatable tax and spend, spend and tax, fiscal synchronization and institutional separation hypotheses in order to explore empirically the interplay between public expenditures and public revenues in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) member states. For this purpose, panel data models are derived to test the validity of the four hypotheses in EMU countries. A notable characteristic of this article is that the four hypotheses are tested by dividing EMU countries into various subgroups and using disaggregated data for government expenditures and revenues. Seeking for the robustness of the empirical evidence, the panel data methods of Generalized Two-Stage Least Squares (GTSLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) are accordingly applied to identify the relationship between public outlays and taxation receipts. GTSLS and GMM results strongly support the fiscal synchronization hypothesis implying that budget decision-making is significantly influenced by both government expenditures and revenues components.
Population Growth Across Chinese Cities: Demand Shocks, Housing Supply Elasticity and Supply Shifts

The population growth of a city is constrained by its housing supply. The growth occurs if the housing supply is elastic in response to urban demand shocks, if the supply shifts out, or if per-capita housing demand decreases. We use this framework to examine the growth of 85 Chinese cities between 1998 and 2004, focusing on the determinants of the supply elasticity. Both the supply shifts and the elasticity are major sources of cross-city variations in growth. The elasticity depends on the availability of infrastructure, the cost of redevelopment, and the income inequality in the city, but not on population density.
A switching regression approach to the stationarity of systematic and non-systematic risks: the Hong Kong experience

The switching regression method of Goldfeld and Quandt (Technique for estimating switching regressions, in Studies in Nonlinear Regression, ed. S. M. Goldfeld and R. E. Quandt, Ballinger, Cambridge MA, 1976) is used to examine the stationarity of systematic and non-systematic risks of Hong Kong's common stocks via the stability of the market model parameters for six industry portfolios and four family portfolios. Empirical evidence for the industry portfolios suggests that the systematic risk component is fairly stable throughout the sample period. However, non-systematic risk tends to decline over the 13-year horizon from February 1980 to December 1992. This may also imply a reduction in the industry's unique risk proportion relative to its total risk level. Hence, security analysts may as well direct relatively more efforts and resources towards analysing the overall market performance rather than focusing extensively on individual industry. Similar findings emerge concerning the non-systematic component of the family portfolios. The evidence of a reduction in industry as well as family-specific risk may further suggest that the benefits of diversifying across different industry sectors or across different family groups may have been diminishing over the past decade. However, the shifts in the structure of systematic and nonsystematic risks of the family portfolios do not appear to have drastically affected the pay-off from analysing and monitoring stocks of individual families.
Pricing the Commonality Across Alternative Measures of Liquidity

We estimate latent factor models of liquidity, aggregated across various liquidity measures. Shocks to assets' liquidity have a common component across measures which accounts for most of the explained variation in individual liquidity measures. We find that across-measure systematic liquidity is a priced factor while within-measure systematic liquidity does not exhibit additional pricing information. Controlling for across-measure systematic liquidity risk, there is some evidence that liquidity, as a characteristic of assets, is priced in the cross-section. Our results are robust to the inclusion of other equity characteristics and risk factors, such as market capitalization, book-to-market, and momentum.
Socio-cultural norms and roles in the use and abuse of alcohol among members of a rural community in Southeast Nigeria

Social influences together with local cultural norms are central factors that can influence the use of alcohol. The study, therefore, identified socio-cultural norms and roles capable of influencing alcohol use among young people in an alcohol producing community, in Nigeria. We used qualitative technique - focused group discussions among selected key persons in the area of study. Three groups; adult males, adult females and youths were engaged in discussions around the themes of socio-cultural; norms, roles, beliefs, values and practices that influences alcohol abuse. The focus group discussions lasted for 60-90 min and each group comprised 8-10 participants. The discussions took place in February 2016. Nine socio-cultural themes emerged following a thematic analysis of the findings, one of which is: Involvement of those who should control drinking in palm wine business hinder control of abuse. Using Vygotsky's Socio-cultural theory guide, the researchers were able to provide the scaffolding that supported the expression of the harmful effect of alcohol abuse and suggestions for improving control by participants.
Potential of Revegetation Incentives to Meet Biodiversity and Salinity Objectives: a Study from the Goulburn Broken Catchment

Revegetation of depleted native vegetation can address both salinity mitigation and biodiversity conservation objectives. Financial capacity is a major impediment to landholders undertaking revegetation. We used a mail survey of landholders to examine the potential of enhanced financial incentives for achieving substantially increased revegetation in the Goulburn Broken Catchment, Victoria. There was considerable interest in our proposed incentive scheme, with 51 per cent of respondents indicated that they would revegetate some of their property, at a price. Most of the landholders who responded positively to the proposal already intended to undertake some revegetation, with the additional financial incentives enabling them to revegetate a larger area. Across the dryland portion of the catchment, we estimate that, over five years, landholders would revegetate about 19,756 ha at a cost of $18,471,079 ($935 per ha). This is additional to the 7,624 ha of native vegetation that would be re-established without the proposal. However, the total revegetation would not be sufficient to meet biodiversity conservation targets for several high priority vegetation types. Similarly, the proposal is likely to achieve only a marginal improvement to the amount of tree cover in areas of high priority for salinity mitigation. Economic incentives will not therefore, by themselves, enable biodiversity conservation and salinity mitigation targets to be achieved. Incentives need to be integrated with other instruments such as revolving funds, regulations and continued education programs.
Social Cost Pricing when Public Transport is an Option Value

A well-known principle of welfare economics states that an efficient allocation of resources can be achieved in a competitive economy when market prices are in line with social marginal costs. When applied to the transport sector, this implies that the price of the various transport modes should be made equal to the sum of marginal production and external costs, like congestion, accidents, pollution, and road maintenance. It is sometimes argued the internalization of external costs would bring about a change in demand patterns with a shift towards public transport and cleaner modes. But public transport is already favoured by discriminatory fiscal treatment. Whereas public services are normally (heavily) subsidized, private transport is taxed in several ways and, in some countries, quite substantially so. The application of the 'optimal pricing' principle, therefore, critically depends on how the subsidization of public services is interpreted. This paper addresses the issue of optimal pricing of urban transport, using different hypotheses concerning the treatment of public services. After reviewing some traditional arguments in favour of public transport subsidization, a new approach, based on uncertainty and option values, is discussed. The implications of this approach are investigated by means of an applied model, where optimal prices for urban transport services in the city of Bologna are computed under alternative assumptions.