Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vitro methanol production from methyl coenzyme M using the Methanosarcina barkeri MtaABC protein complex

Methanol:coenzyme M methyltransferase is an enzyme complex composed of three subunits, MtaA, MtaB, and MtaC, found in methanogenic archaea and is needed for their growth on methanol ultimately producing methane. MtaABC catalyzes the energetically favorable methyl transfer from methanol to coenzyme M to form methyl coenzyme M. Here we demonstrate that this important reaction for possible production of methanol from the anaerobic oxidation of methane can be reversed in vitro. To this effect, we have expressed and purified the Methanosarcina barkeri MtaABC enzyme, and developed an in vitro functional assay that demonstrates MtaABC can catalyze the energetically unfavorable (ΔG° = 27 kJ/mol) reverse reaction starting from methyl coenzyme M and generating methanol as a product. Demonstration of an in vitro ability of MtaABC to produce methanol may ultimately enable the anaerobic oxidation of methane to produce methanol and from methanol alternative fuel or fuel‐precursor molecules. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 33:1243–1249, 2017
The benefit of musical and linguistic expertise on language acquisition in sung material

Musical learning and training appear to have large cross-domain transfer effects: they are beneficial in various cognitive domains including language. The present study aimed to examine the role of musical expertise in how musical and linguistic information contained in songs is used. However, as the superiority of musicians could be attributed to improvements in executive functions (e.g., Bialystok & DePape, 2009), we tried to isolate the role of musical training by comparing music experts to both non-experts and language experts. To this end we used the tasks proposed by Schön and colleagues (2008), who compared artificial language learning (ALL) based on spoken sequences to ALL based on sung sequences. These authors concluded that songs, more than speech, allow fast and strong learning. In contrast to Schön et al. (2008), the benefit of ALL based on songs was not found among non-experts in our study. However, there was a highly significant interaction between type of expertise and materials. The music experts were the only group to benefit from the matching of linguistic and musical information, hence showing a different profile than language experts. The present data thus confirm the specificity of transfer effects linked to musical expertise.
Chemotherapy and survival benefit in elderly patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE Platinum-doublet chemotherapy regimens have been shown to extend survival in fit patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (AdvNSCLC). This study extends recent population-based analyses focusing on treatment and survival benefit from use of platinum-doublet therapy, and addressing the role of performance status (PS). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients >or= 66 years with AdvNSCLC incident from 1997 to 2002 were identified in SEER-Medicare. Multivariate models examined tumor and patient characteristics associated with receipt of any chemotherapy and receipt of platinum-doublet compared with single-agent therapy. Nonparametric models estimated treatment effects on survival. Models controlled for patient characteristics, including a novel method to use claims-based indicators to characterize PS. Propensity score analysis adjusted for confounding. RESULTS Of the 21,285 patients, 25.8% received first-line chemotherapy. Multivariate analyses indicate lower use of any chemotherapy and platinum-based doublet regimens with increasing age, comorbidity, and poor PS. Receipt of any chemotherapy was associated with reduction in the adjusted hazard of death (0.558; 95% CI, 0.547 to 0.569) and an increase in adjusted 1-year survival from 11.6% (95% CI, 11.1 to 12.0) to 27.0% (95% CI, 26.4 to 27.6). Platinum-doublet receipt increased adjusted 1-year survival over single agents, from 19.4% (95% CI, 18.3 to 20.4) to 30.1% (95% CI, 28.9 to 31.4). CONCLUSION Most elderly patients with AdvNSCLC do not receive chemotherapy, yet there are clear survival benefits, even with controls for age, comorbidity, and PS. The benefit of platinum-based doublet regimens is greater than single-agent chemotherapy. Claims-based proxy indicators of poor PS were independent predictors of treatment and merit further exploration.
Dynamic near-infrared imaging reveals transient phototropic change in retinal rod photoreceptors

Abstract. Stiles–Crawford effect (SCE) is exclusively observed in cone photoreceptors, but why the SCE is absent in rod photoreceptors is still a mystery. In this study, we employed dynamic near infrared light imaging to monitor photoreceptor kinetics in freshly isolated frog and mouse retinas stimulated by oblique visible light flashes. It was observed that retinal rods could rapidly (onset: ∼10 ms for frog and 5 ms for mouse; time-to-peak: ∼200 ms for frog and 30 ms for mouse) shift toward the direction of the visible light, which might quickly compensate for the loss of luminous efficiency due to oblique illumination. In contrast, such directional movement was negligible in retinal cones. Moreover, transient rod phototropism could contribute to characteristic intrinsic optical signal (IOS). We anticipate that further study of the transient rod phototropism may not only provide insight into better understanding of the nature of vision but also promise an IOS biomarker for functional mapping of rod physiology at high resolution.
Impact of network ties on change in police agency practices

Purpose – Organizational research has suggested that network ties influence adoption of innovations and other organizational behavior. This paper aims to study the impact of network ties on change in police agency practices in a sample of city and county police agencies for which Weiss provided data on informal communication ties between agency planners.Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyzed change in six agency practices from 1997 to 2000, as indicated in law enforcement management and administrative statistics (LEMAS) data, with a variable indicating whether an agency's network contact engaged in the practice.Findings – Network ties appeared to influence change in computer use for crime mapping, with change more likely when the agency and its network contact initially differed with respect to the practice. Statistically significant network influences were not found for change in the other practices (existence of a formal community policing plan, geographic assignment of detectives, encourage.
Too Close to Call? Uncertainty and Bias in Election‐Night Reporting*

Previous research has found that early election-night projections can have a depressing effect on turnout in presidential elections. Although this effect has been found to be small in the past, it may be enough to sway state outcomes and, potentially, the final outcomes of close presidential and other elections. Therefore, this article analyzes the election-night presidential projections of the three major cable news networks in 2000 and 2004 to examine the forces that lead to the timing of election-night calls. Copyright (c) 2007 Southwestern Social Science Association.
Urinary incontinence. Non-surgical management by family physicians.

OBJECTIVE To review current evidence on conservative management of urinary incontinence (UI) by family physicians. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE Articles were sought through MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, PsycLit, ERIC, two consensus meetings, and review of abstracts presented at urology meetings. References of these articles were searched for relevant trials. Strong evidence supports bladder training, pelvic floor exercises, and some medications, but only fair evidence supports fluid adjustment, caffeine reduction, and stopping smoking. Weight loss and exercise are supported by expert opinion only. Consensus opinion is that, whenever possible, conservative management should be considered first. MAIN MESSAGE Good evidence shows that initial management by primary care physicians is effective. After basic assessment and tests, strategies such as bladder retraining, pelvic floor exercises, and lifestyle modifications, augmented by appropriate medications, can be successful. If initial strategies are unsuccessful, patients can be referred. CONCLUSION More than a million Canadians suffer from UI. In almost all cases, family physicians are the first health professionals contacted by patients. Basic assessment and conservative management can go far to ameliorate the problem.
Interference in Shielded Foil Twisted Pair (SFTP) Cables Due to ESD

Interference produced by ESD events in shielded foil twisted pairs (SFTPs) is investigated. Typical installation setup of SFTP cables connecting differential driver and receiver RS422 both placed in shielded enclosures is considered. Experimental results of common and differential mode interference obtained adopting different discharge points and different grounding configurations are presented. The influence of positive and negative discharges on the measured interference is verified.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE GOALS OF FAMILY BUSINESS OWNERS

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to understand how owners of family businesses select and develop life goals. Findings indicate life goals are substantially influenced and impacted by parents, mentors and influential "others". The selection and development of life goals required a high level of self-confidence in their own knowledge, skills, and abilities with the attitude to make things happen. A faith in a higher being contributed to the belief and feeling that they were at the right place at the right time and possessed the correct knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitude to take advantage of the opportunities placed before them. A strong desire for personal independence influenced the selection and development of the family business as a life goal.
A Connective Model of Learning: The Implications for Work Process Knowledge

This article draws upon research in the field of Cultural Historical Activity Theory in order to provide a new theoretical and methodological framework for analysing work experience and identifying the social and cultural practices which support the production of new knowledge. In doing so, it builds upon recent work (Griffiths et al, 2001; Guile & Griffiths, 2001) which has explored knowledge development and learning, raising questions for research, policy and practice. The article describes the potential of a ‘connective model’ of learning as a way of reformulating and addressing questions of learning and knowledge development in and between different contexts. There are, for example, implications for the idea and development of ‘work process knowledge’.
Ventilation–Perfusion SPECT with 99mTc-DTPA Versus Technegas: A Head-to-Head Study in Obstructive and Nonobstructive Disease

Lung scintigraphy is primarily used to diagnose pulmonary embolism. Ventilation imaging is often performed using 99mTc-DTPA or Technegas, an ultrafine dispersion of 99mTc-labeled carbon. Despite the common use of these radioaerosols, they have not been compared in an intraindividual study, and not with ventilation–perfusion (V/P) SPECT. The aim of the present head-to-head study was to systematically investigate differences in ventilation studies performed with 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA) and Technegas. Methods: Sixty-three patients, 28 without and 35 with obstructive lung disease, were examined with V/P SPECT using both 99mTc-DTPA and Technegas. V/P SPECT images were randomized and assessed independently by 2 masked physicians according to a predefined scoring system. A paired comparison was performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: In both obstructive and nonobstructive disease, the overall unevenness of radiotracer deposition and the degree of central deposition were more pronounced in 99mTc-DTPA than Technegas studies. Because of better peripheral penetration, the extent of reverse mismatch was less when Technegas was used. Additionally, in obstructive disease, the degree of focal deposition in distal airways was more pronounced with 99mTc-DTPA. Mismatched perfusion defects were more frequently found with Technegas in obstructive disease. Conclusion: This intraindividual comparative study shows that Technegas is the preferred radioaerosol, particularly in obstructive disease.
The Relative Effects of Eye-Gaze and Smiling on Arousal in Asocial Situations

Summary The link between eye-gaze and arousal has received support in several studies where the gaze was presented independently of a social situation. Three hypotheses were identified suggesting that the results of these studies are limited in their applicability to normal social interaction. One hypothesis proposed that nonverbal behaviors usually affect arousal in combination with other behaviors, a second that the salience of any behavior may vary between laboratory and normal interaction, and a third that arousal effects are stronger in the laboratory than in normal interaction. Eye-gaze and smiling were combined in a 2 × 2 design and presented to 10 male graduate students whose alpha EEG was recorded as an index of arousal. The setting was asocial in that no interaction occurred during stimulus presentation. Results showed only smiling produced arousal and only during the first five seconds of a 20-second trial. No effects for eye-gaze were obtained. Failing to replicate gaze effects and obtaining a.
Design of Virtual 3D Instruments for Musical Interaction

An environment for designing virtual instruments with 3D geometry has been prototyped and applied to realtime sound control and design. It was implemented by extending a realtime, visual programming language called Max/FTS, running on an SGI Onyx, with software objects to interface CyberGloves and Polhemus sensors and to compute human movement and virtual object features. Virtual input devices with behaviours of a rubber balloon and sheet were designed for the control of sound spatialization and timbre parameters. Informal evaluation showed that a sonification inspired by the physical world appears natural and effective. More research is required for a natural sonification of virtual input device features such as shape, taking into account possible co-articulation of these features. While both hands can be used for manipulation, left-hand-only interaction with a virtual instrument may be a useful replacement for and extension of the standard music synthesizer keyboard modulation wheel. More research is needed to identify and apply manipulation pragmatics and movement features, and to investigate how they are co-articulated, in the mapping of virtual object parameters.
Middle Grades Career Planning Programs

Students in middle grades are making decisions that greatly affect their future educational and career paths. Many times students do not have the necessary information or assistance to help them make decisions that would engender success in their educational and career paths. For students to be able to think about their career plans with any depth, they must have a foundation of career awareness and career exploration experiences. These experiences can help students realize what is required of them when interested in a certain career or career cluster and help them form realistic career plans. Implementation of a six-year plan of study, curriculum infusion, and job shadowing are just a few of the critical elements that need to take place in the career exploration phase. These elements, along with others found in a comprehensive career guidance program, can help assure students are cognizant of the many educational and career opportunities available to them and how to capitalize on these opportunities.
Translations of Measurements and Scales: Opportunities and Diversities

Increased international collaboration in clinical trials has created a need for scale translations and cross-culturally valid instruments. The use of scales that have been poorly translated and of translations that have not been validated can lead to erroneous results. Accordingly, the quality of studies using nonvalidated translations of scales from different cultural regions should be questioned. Scale translation is important, and it is surprising that little attention has been paid to the methodology of translating measurements and scales into other languages and validating them for different cultures, especially in psychiatric and geriatric research.
Restricted immunoglobulin junctional diversity in neonatal B cells results from developmental selection rather than homology-based V(D)J joining

The mechanism by which coding ends are joined during immunoglobulin (Ig) recombination is poorly understood. Recently, short sequence similarities (2-6 bp) observed at the ends of certain variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) gene segments of Ig have been correlated with limited junctional diversity observed in coding exons assembled from these elements. However, it is unclear whether these sequence homologies play any direct role in favoring coding joint formation by influencing the V(D)J recombination process. In this report, we demonstrate that coding sequence similarities do not influence the position of coding joints during V(D)J recombination in vivo. Instead, during embryonic development, B cells with certain joining products undergo progressive selection. Developmental selection is completed before exposure to external antigens and appears to be determined by the amino acid sequence encoded by the coding joint. We conclude that the nucleotide sequences of the coding regions do not play a major role in directing V(D)J recombination. Instead, we propose that limited Ig junctional diversity results from prenatal developmental selection of B cells based on the protein sequence of their surface Ig antigen-binding site. Sequence identities at the ends of coding segments may have evolved because they increase the likelihood that a selectable antigen- binding site is created during a random recombination process.
Multi-core column-store parallelization under concurrent workload

Columnar database systems, designed for an optimal OLAP workload performance, strive for maximum multi-core utilization under concurrent query executions. However, multi-core parallel plan generated for isolated execution leads to suboptimal performance during concurrent query execution. In this paper, we analyze the concurrent workload resource contention effects on multi-core plans using three intra-query parallelization techniques, static, adaptive, and cost model parallelization. We focus on a plan level comparison of selected TPC-H queries, using in-memory multi-core columnar systems. Excessive partitions in statically parallelized plans result into heavy L3 cache misses leading to memory contention, degrading query performance severely. Overall, adaptive plans show more robustness, less scheduling overheads, and an average 50% execution time improvement compared to statically parallelized plans, and cost model based plans.
Adaptive numerical methods in time and space for the simulation of multi-scale reaction fronts. (Méthodes numériques adaptatives pour la simulation de la dynamique de fronts de réaction multi-échelles en temps et en espace)

We tackle the development of a new generation of numerical methods for the solution of time dependent PDEs modeling general time/space multi-scale phenomena issued from various application fields. This type of problem induces well-known numerical restrictions and potentially large stiffness, which stem from the broad spectrum of time scales in the nonlinear chemical terms as well as from steep, spatially very localized, spatial gradients in the reaction fronts. Therefore, dedicated numerical strategies are needed to ensure the accuracy of the numerical approximations from a theoretical point of view, taking also into account adequate practical implementations to reduce computational costs. In order to cope with these problems, this study introduces a few mathematical and numerical elements for the solution of stiff reaction-diffusion systems, extensible in practice to more general configurations. The core of the numerical strategy is thus based on a specially conceived operator splitting method with dedicated high order time integration schemes for each subproblem. An appropriate choice of splitting time steps allows us the simulation of the solution within a prescribed accuracy, according to the overall physics of the problem. The resulting numerical scheme is properly coupled with an adaptive multiresolution technique for dynamic spatial mesh representations of the solution. Such an approach has led to the conception of the academic, generic 1D/2D/3D MBARETE code in order to evaluate the proposed theoretical and numerical developments in practical stiff configurations arising in several research fields. The algorithmic efficiency of the method is assessed by the simulation of propagating stiff reaction waves issued from nonlinear chemical dynamics and from biomedical engineering applications for a brain stroke model with "detailed chemical mechanisms''. Moreover, in order to extend the applicability of the method to more complex and unsteady problems, we consider for the first time a time adaptive splitting scheme for stiff PDEs, that yields dynamic time stepping within the prescribed accuracy. The fully time/space adaptive method allows us then a consistent description of reaction-diffusion-convection problems disclosing a broad spectrum of time/space scales as well as different physical scenarios, such as highly nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges or self-ignition and propagation of flames for, respectively, plasma and combustion applications. The main goal of this work is hence to numerically solve stiff PDEs with reasonable, standard computational resources and based on a mathematical background that ensures robust, general and accurate numerical schemes. Further studies are also presented that include time parallelization strategies, parallel computing techniques for shared memory architectures and complementary mathematical characterization of splitting schemes.