Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incomplete genomes of the parvovirus minute virus of mice: selective conservation of genome termini, including the origin for DNA replication

Deletion mutants of minute virus of mice arising during a single high-multiplicity passage and after serial undiluted passage have been isolated, and the incomplete viral genomes contained therein have been analyzed. The DNA isolated from incomplete virions derived from a single high-multiplicity passage was heterogeneous, ranging in size from 15 to 70% of the intact viral genome, with an average molecular length of approximately, 2,000 nucleotides. Two distinct types of molecules, designated as type I D-DNA and type II D-DNA, could be distinguished on the basis of their degree of secondary structure, and these were present in roughly equal amounts. Type I D-DNAs were predominantly single-stranded, recombinant molecules in which the self-complementary sequences derived from both genomic termini were conserved. The 5' terminus was modified relative to the analogous wild-type structure. Although virtually all of the wild-type genome sequence was seen in the total type I D-DNA population, sequences which map between coordinates 47.3 and 87.1 were clearly underrepresented. However, the extent and position of the deletions in individual molecules varied significantly. The shortest molecules in the population lacked between 90 and 95% of the internal wild-type genome sequence and consisted of sequences derived almost exclusively from within 5.0 map units (250 nucleotides) at both ends of the viral genome. Moreover, these miniature recombinant molecules were selectively amplified during serial undiluted passage and were therefore believed to contain all of the critical recognition sites necessary for the replication of minute virus of mice viral DNA. Type II D-DNAs were virus-specific, double-stranded hairpin molecules whose complementary strands were covalently continuous at variable sites distal to the 5' end of the viral minus strand. In sharp contrast to the type I genomes, these hairpin molecules consisted of sequences which mapped entirely at the 5' end of the viral genome between positions 85.0 and 100. Furthermore, type II molecules were gradually lost from the total D-DNA population during serial undiluted passage, suggesting that these molecules are not competent for DNA Replication but arise as the result of fatal replication errors. Deletion mutants of the type described here for minute virus of mice should be valuable generally as aids to future studies on parvovirus DNA replication, transcription, and cell-virus interactions.
A theoretical and empirical research on the mediating effect of internal entrepreneurial environment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of internal entrepreneurial environment (IEE) between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approach – The research is conducted using an original data set of 185 in China. The mediator measurement steps recommended by Baron and Kenny to test the mediating effects are applied.Findings – The proposition that EO can lead to the improvement of organizational performance is only partially confirmed in this paper; IEE is the mediating variable between innovation‐proactive and organizational performance, but the dimension of risk‐taking is not verified.Research limitations/implications – As far as the IEE measurement scale is concerned, its simplicity is achieved at the cost of accuracy. Future research may adopt more complex scale design to further verify the relationship among the different sub‐dimensions of IEE, as well as the correlation and causality between those dimensions and organizationa.
On the form factor between two polygons

Form factors are used in radiosity to describe the fraction of diffusely reflected light leaving one surface and arriving at another. They are a fundamental geometric property used for computation. Many special configurations admit closed form solutions. However, the important case of the form factor between two polygons in three space has had no known closed form solution. We give such a solution for the case of general (planar, convex or concave, possibly containing holes) polygons. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: I.3. 7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism ‐ Radiosity ; J.2 [Physical Sciences and Engineering]: Engineering.
Association of increased cortical soluble abeta42 levels with diffuse plaques after severe brain injury in humans.

BACKGROUND Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an environmental risk factor for developing Alzheimer disease. This may be due, in part, to changes associated with beta-amyloid (Abeta) plaque formation, which can occur within hours after injury, regardless of the patient's age. In addition to being precursors of toxic fibrils that deposit into plaques, soluble (nonfibrillar) Abeta peptides are posited to disrupt synaptic function and are associated with cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease. Changes in soluble Abeta levels and their relationship to Abeta plaque formation following TBI are unknown. OBJECTIVE To quantify brain tissue levels of soluble Abeta peptides and their precursor protein in relation to Abeta plaque formation after TBI in humans. DESIGN Surgically resected temporal cortex tissue from patients with severe TBI was processed for biochemical assays of soluble Abeta peptides with COOH-termini ending in amino acid 40 (Abeta(40)) or 42 (Abeta(42)) and Abeta precursor protein to compare patients with cortical Abeta plaques and those without. Patients Nineteen subjects admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for treatment of severe closed head injury. RESULTS Patients with severe TBI and cortical plaques had higher levels of soluble Abeta(1-42) but not Abeta(1-40); half of them were apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon4 allele carriers. The lowest Abeta levels were in 1 patient without plaques who was the only subject with an APOE epsilon2 allele. beta-Amyloid precursor protein levels were comparable in the 2 TBI groups. CONCLUSIONS Selective increases in soluble Abeta(1-42) after TBI may predispose individuals with a brain injury to Alzheimer disease pathology. This may be influenced by the APOE genotype, and it may confer increased risk for developing Alzheimer disease later in life.
Evolution of the 3R-MYB Gene Family in Plants

Plant 3R-MYB transcription factors are an important subgroup of the MYB super family in plants; however, their evolutionary history and functions remain poorly understood. We identified 225 3R-MYB proteins from 65 plant species, including algae and all major lineages of land plants. Two segmental duplication events preceding the common ancestor of angiosperms have given rise to three subgroups of the 3R-MYB proteins. Five conserved introns in the domain region of the 3R-MYB genes were identified, which arose through a step-wise pattern of intron gain during plant evolution. Alternative splicing (AS) analysis of selected species revealed that transcripts from more than 60% of 3R-MYB genes undergo AS. AS could regulate transcriptional activity for some of the plant 3R-MYBs by generating different regulatory motifs. The 3R-MYB genes of all subgroups appear to be enriched for Mitosis-Specific Activator element core sequences within their upstream promoter region, which suggests a functional involvement in cell cycle. Notably, expression of 3R-MYB genes from different species exhibits differential regulation under various abiotic stresses. These data suggest that the plant 3R-MYBs function in both cell cycle regulation and abiotic stress response, which may contribute to the adaptation of plants to a sessile lifestyle.
Shared Decision-Making in Youth Mental Health Care: Using the Evidence to Plan Treatments Collaboratively

The shared decision-making (SDM) model is one in which providers and consumers of health care come together as collaborators in determining the course of care. The model is especially relevant to youth mental health care, when planning a treatment frequently entails coordinating both youth and parent perspectives, preferences, and goals. The present article first provides the historical context of the SDM model and the rationale for increasing our field’s use of SDM when planning psychosocial treatments for youth and families. Having established the potential utility of SDM, the article then discusses how to apply the SDM model to treatment planning for youth psychotherapy, proposing a set of steps consistent with the model and considerations when conducting SDM with youth and families.
Convergence in the trends and cycles of Euro‐zone income

Multivariate unobserved components (structural) time series models are fitted to annual post-war observations on real income per capita in countries in the Euro-zone. The aim is to establish stylized facts about convergence as it relates both to long-run and short-run movements. A new model, in which convergence components are combined with a common trend and similar cycles, is proposed. The convergence components are formulated as a second-order error correction mechanism; this ensures that the extracted components change smoothly, thereby enabling them to be separated from transitory cycles. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Multi-DOF Motion Reproduction Using Motion-Copying System With Velocity Constraint

This paper analyzes the performance of the motion-copying system based on velocity information. In previous studies, the motion-copying system was proposed for storage and reproduction of haptic information. The motion-copying system is expected to be applied to various fields such as industrial applications, training systems, medical and welfare human assist, and so on. In the conventional method, however, the saved motion cannot be reproduced precisely when the environmental location in the motion-loading phase is different from that in the motion-saving phase. To solve this problem, we proposed the motion-copying system based on velocity information. This paper shows that the proposed method is applied to a 2-degree-of-freedom robot, and the performance is discussed. By using the proposal, it is possible to reproduce the saved motion even though the environmental location is shifted parallel. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by experimental results.
Measuring progress in reading achievement between primary and secondary school across countries

This paper discusses a method to compare progress in reading achievement from primary to secondary school across countries. The method is similar to value-added models that take into account intake levels when comparing student progress in different schools. Value-added models are preferred over raw scores as they better reflect school efforts. The method discussed in this paper uses measures of achievement in primary schools from PIRLS and compares them to secondary school results from PISA. Changes in achievement are estimated using IRT models and random draws of test items. Results describe an interval in which estimates of progress can lie, depending on the comparability of these two assessments. Estimates of progress are also adjusted for student age, gender and other characteristics that differ between countries and surveys. Separate results by gender, immigrant status, and proficiency level provide a detailed picture of how students in different countries progress in school from the age of 10 to 15.
The DEG15 Serine Protease Cleaves Peroxisomal Targeting Signal 2-Containing Proteins in Arabidopsis1[OA]

Two distinct peroxisomal targeting signals (PTSs), the C-terminal PTS1 and the N-terminal PTS2, are defined. Processing of the PTS2 on protein import is conserved in higher eukaryotes. Recently, candidates for the responsible processing protease were identified from plants (DEG15) and mammals (TYSND1). We demonstrate that plants lacking DEG15 show an expressed phenotype potentially linked to reduced β-oxidation, indicating the impact of protein processing on peroxisomal functions in higher eukaryotes. Mutational analysis of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) DEG15 revealed that conserved histidine, aspartic acid, and serine residues are essential for the proteolytic activity of this enzyme in vitro. This indicates that DEG15 and related enzymes are trypsin-like serine endopeptidases. Deletion of a plant-specific stretch present in the protease domain diminished, but did not abolish, the proteolytic activity of DEG15 against the PTS2-containing glyoxysomal malate dehydrogenase. Fluorescence microscopy showed that a DEG15-green fluorescent protein fusion construct is targeted to peroxisomes in planta. In vivo studies with isolated homozygous deg15 knockout mutants and complemented mutant lines suggest that this enzyme mediates general processing of PTS2-containing proteins.
Tracking a varying number of people with a visually-controlled robotic head

Multi-person tracking with a robotic platform is one of the cornerstones of human-robot interaction. Challenges arise from occlusions, appearance changes and a time-varying number of people. Furthermore, the final system is constrained by the hardware platform: low computational capacity and limited field-of-view. In this paper, we propose a novel method to simultaneously track a time-varying number of persons in three-dimensions and perform visual servoing. The complementary nature of the tracking and visual servoing enables the system to: (i) track several persons while compensating for large ego-movements and (ii) visually control the robot to keep a selected person of interest within the field of view. We propose a variational Bayesian formulation allowing us to effectively solve the inference problem through the use of closed-form solutions. Importantly, this leads to a computationally efficient procedure that runs at 10 FPS. The experiments on the NAO-MPVS dataset confirm the importance of using visual servoing for tracking multiple persons.
Dendroscope 3: an interactive tool for rooted phylogenetic trees and networks.

Dendroscope 3 is a new program for working with rooted phylogenetic trees and networks. It provides a number of methods for drawing and comparing rooted phylogenetic networks, and for computing them from rooted trees. The program can be used interactively or in command-line mode. The program is written in Java, use of the software is free, and installers for all 3 major operating systems can be downloaded from www.dendroscope. org. [Phylogenetic trees; phylogenetic networks; software. ].
Travel Hysteresis in the US Current Account After the Mid-1980s

Following the real appreciation of the US dollar in the first half of the 1980s, travel expenditures in the current account soared. Employing standard regression techniques as well as Markov-switching regime analysis we show that such expenditures did not return to their pre- appreciation levels thereafter. The permanent increase suggests the presence of travel hysteresis in the US current account after the mid- 1980s.
A Population-Based Intervention for the Prevention of Falls and Fractures in Home Dwelling People 65 Years and Older in South Germany: Protocol

Background Falls and fall-related injuries pose a major threat to older peoples’ health, and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In the course of demographic changes, development and implementation of fall prevention strategies have been recognized as an urgent public health challenge. Various risk factors for falls and a number of effective interventions have been recognized. A substantial proportion of falls occur for people who are neither frail nor at high risk. Therefore, population-based approaches reaching the entire older population are needed. Objective The objective of the study presented is the development, implementation, and evaluation of a population-based intervention for the prevention of falls and fall-related injuries in a medium sized city in Germany. Methods The study is designed as a population-based approach. The intervention community is a mid sized city named Reutlingen in southern Germany with a population of 112,700 people. All community dwelling inhabitants 65 years and older are addressed. There are two main measures that are defined: (1) increase of overall physical activity, and (2) reduction of modifiable risk factors for falls such as deficits in strength and balance, home and environmental hazards, impaired vision, unsafe footwear, and improper use of assistive devices. The implementation strategies are developed in a participatory community planning process. These might include, for example, training of professionals and volunteers, improved availability of exercise classes, and education and raising awareness via newspaper, radio, or lectures. Results The study starts in September 2010 and ends in December 2013. It is evaluated primarily by process evaluation as well as by telephone survey. Conclusions Physical activity as a key message entails multiple positive effects with benefits on a range of geriatric symptoms. The strength of the design is the development of implementation strategies in a participatory community planning. The problems that we anticipate are the dependency on the stakeholders’ willingness to participate, and the difficulty of evaluating population-based programs by hard end points.
Empirical Estimation of GDP determinants, Household Consumption Expenditure and the Consumption Multiplier in Pakistan (1985-2011)

Present study empirically estimates the impact of consumption on Gross Domestic Product in Pakistan using annual data for 27 years (1985-2011). Stepwise regression method is applied on GDP as dependent variable and several other variables like Household Consumption, Foreign Direct Investment, International Trade, Domestic Savings, Value Addition in Industry, Agriculture and Services Sectors taken independent of each other, External Debt, Remittances, Gross Capital Formation and Population as independent variables. The empirical results suggest that the change in GDP is significantly explained from the change in Agriculture and Services Sectors’ Value Addition, Gross Domestic Savings, External Debt and Household Consumption. The Standardized Beta values of the coefficients of accepted variables suggest that the household final consumption expenditure is the biggest determinant of GDP out of the accepted variables. Further the consumption multiplier has been estimated from the estimated value of marginal propensity to consume (MPC) which suggests that rise of each Pakistani rupee (local currency) in household income leads to a rise of PKR 0.821 (Pak Rupee) in household final consumption. Further, given the MPC value, through induced expenditure, the multiplier effect is thus estimated at 5.587.
Optical datacenter networks with elastic optical switches

Four variants of the optical data center network architecture (DCN1 — DCN4) based on optical circuit switching and elastic optical switching elements are proposed. For each variant theoretical limits for non-blocking operation have been derived and proved. The proposed networks are also compared in terms of the required number of switching elements. Our results show that variant DCN1 is more appropriate for very small data centers with tens of racks with servers, while variant DCN4 requires much fewer switching elements in data centers with hundreds or thousands of such racks.
Corporate governance and innovative success: An examination of the moderating influence of a firm’s life cycle stage

Abstract In this study we examine whether corporate governance influences a firm’s innovative success and if so, how this association is moderated by the life cycle stage of the firm. Innovative success is a broad term and is difficult to measure. Based on Mansfield (1981) we trichotomize ‘innovative success’ into three components, namely, technical (measured by number of patents received), commercial (measured by sales growth) and economic success (measured by Tobin’s Q as based on Mansfield (1981)). We use a sample of electronic firms in Taiwan which invested in research and development covering the years 2001–2009. We find that higher levels of corporate governance have a significant effect on two components of innovative success, namely, patent productivity and a fir m’s value but not on commercial success as measured by sales growth. We also find that the influence of corporate governance on the three components of innovative activity is most pronounced when the firm is in the stagnant stage of its respective life cycle and least pronounced when the firm is in the growth stage. Our study adds to the discussion on the importance of corporate governance by showing that while it has a positive influence on innovative activity, its impact is contingent on the stage of the firm in its respective life cycle.
Applying the signature concept to plan-based program understanding

Program understanding tools that are able to process large legacy systems are needed to support software engineers with maintenance tasks. One type of tool, a plan-based program understander, recognizes concepts in the code by comparing the target code against a library of programming plans. For a large plan library, an exhaustive search for a matching plan during concept recognition is not effective. This drawback limits the practical scalability of these types of tools. We propose a signature-based approach to prune the plan library. A signature in this work is a set of high level attributes derived from code features suggested by studies on human program comprehension. A SIGMA prototype is implemented to embody the proposed approach. Program plan retrieval with SIGMA (signature matching agent) shows promising results in removing irrelevant plans from consideration prior to attempting the later computational concept recognition process. It appears that the signature approach to plan retrieval may be able to facilitate the scaling up of plan-based understanders so that they can better support maintenance tasks on large legacy systems.
HMN-176, an active metabolite of the synthetic antitumor agent HMN-214, restores chemosensitivity to multidrug-resistant cells by targeting the transcription factor NF-Y.

HMN-176 ((E)-4-[[2-N-[4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl]amino]stilbazole]1-oxide) is an active metabolite of HMN-214 ((E)-4-[2-[2-(N-acetyl-N-[4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl]amino)stilbazole]]1-oxide), which has a potent antitumor activity in mouse xenograft models. In this study, we show that HMN-176 circumvents multidrug resistance in a K2 human ovarian cancer subline selected for Adriamycin resistance (K2/ARS). Upon treatment of K2/ARS cells with 3 microM HMN-176, the GI(50) of Adriamycin for the cells decreased by approximately 50%. To explore the molecular mechanism of this effect, we assessed the expression of the multidrug resistance gene (MDR1), which is constitutive in K2/ARS cells, at both the protein and the mRNA level. Western and reverse transcription-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of MDR1 was significantly suppressed by treatment with HMN-176. Furthermore, when administered p.o. , HMN-214 suppressed the expression of MDR1 mRNA in a mouse xenograft model implanted with KB-A.1, an Adriamycin-resistant cell line. Luciferase reporter fusion gene analysis demonstrated that HMN-176 inhibited the Y-box-dependent promoter activity of the MDR1 gene in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, we show by electrophoretic mobility shift assay that HMN-176 inhibits the binding of NF-Y, which is thought to be an essential factor for the basal expression of MDR1, to its target Y-box consensus sequence in the MDR-1 promoter. Inhibition of MDR-1 expression was achieved with pharmacological concentrations of HMN-176, suggesting that HMN-176 may act by two different mechanisms-cytotoxicity and MDR1 down-regulation-simultaneously. The data presented strongly suggest that the antitumor mechanism of HMN-176 (or its prodrug HMN-214 in vivo) is quite different from those of known antitumor agents.