Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
WORKING PAPER SERIES FEDERAL RESERVE BANK of ATLANTA How Sticky Wages in Existing Jobs Can Affect Hiring

We consider a matching model of employment with wages that are flexible for new hires, but that are sticky within matches. We depart from standard treatments of sticky wages by allowing worker effort to respond to the wage being too high or low. Shimer (2004) and others have illustrated that employment in the Mortensen-Pissarides model does not depend on the degree of wage flexibility in existing matches. But that is not true in our model. If wages of matched workers are stuck too high in a recession, then firms will require more effort, lowering the value of additional labor and reducing new hiring. JEL classification: E32, E24, J22
Development and Evaluation of a Nested PCR for Improved Diagnosis and Genetic Analysis of Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV) for Future Use in Nascent PPR Eradication Programme

Simple Summary Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious and economically important viral disease of small ruminants and a large number of wildlife species. The causative agent, PPR virus (PPRV) is mainly circulating across large areas in Africa, the Middle East and Asia and is, fortunately, currently subject to a global eradication program. A robust vaccination program along with a rapid and accurate laboratory diagnosis play a major role in the effective control and eradication of the disease. Furthermore, a genetic analysis of the circulating PPRV can help to identify the epidemiological linkage of the virus spread between neighboring countries. Here, we have developed an improved polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that can detect low viral loads and help in genetic identification, particularly in resource-limited settings. Abstract Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants caused by PPR virus (PPRV). PPR is endemic in Asia, the Middle East and across large areas of Africa and is currently targeted for global eradication by 2030. The virus exists as four different lineages that are usually limited to specific geographical areas. However, recent reports of spread of PPRV, in particular of lineage IV viruses to infection-free countries and previously PPR endemic areas are noteworthy. A rapid and accurate laboratory diagnosis and reports on its epidemiological linkage for virus spread play a major role in the effective control and eradication of the disease. Currently, molecular assays, including conventional reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) are usually used for diagnosis of PPR while the sequencing of part of the nucleocapsid gene is usually carried out for the viral lineage identification. However, it is difficult to diagnose and sequence the genetic material if the animal excreted a low level of virus at the initial stage of infection or if the PPRV is degraded during the long-distance transportation of samples to the reference laboratories. This study describes the development of a novel nested RT-PCR assay for the detection of the PPRV nucleic acid by targeting the N-protein gene, compares the performance of the assay with the existing conventional RT-PCR and also provides good-quality DNA suitable for sequencing in order to identify circulating lineages. The assay was evaluated using cell culture propagated PPRVs, field samples from clinically infected animals and samples from experimentally infected animals encompassing all four lineages (I–IV) of PPRV. This assay provides a solution with an easy, accurate, rapid and cost-effective PPR diagnostic and partial genome sequencing for use in resource-limited settings.
Transcription Factors in Alkaloid Engineering

Plants produce a large variety of low-molecular-weight and specialized secondary compounds. Among them, nitrogen-containing alkaloids are the most biologically active and are often used in the pharmaceutical industry. Although alkaloid chemistry has been intensively investigated, characterization of alkaloid biosynthesis, including biosynthetic enzyme genes and their regulation, especially the transcription factors involved, has been relatively delayed, since only a limited number of plant species produce these specific types of alkaloids in a tissue/cell-specific or developmental-specific manner. Recent advances in molecular biology technologies, such as RNA sequencing, co-expression analysis of transcripts and metabolites, and functional characterization of genes using recombinant technology and cutting-edge technology for metabolite identification, have enabled a more detailed characterization of alkaloid pathways. Thus, transcriptional regulation of alkaloid biosynthesis by transcription factors, such as basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH), APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor (AP2/ERF), and WRKY, is well elucidated. In addition, jasmonate signaling, an important cue in alkaloid biosynthesis, and its cascade, interaction of transcription factors, and post-transcriptional regulation are also characterized and show cell/tissue-specific or developmental regulation. Furthermore, current sequencing technology provides more information on the genome structure of alkaloid-producing plants with large and complex genomes, for genome-wide characterization. Based on the latest information, we discuss the application of transcription factors in alkaloid engineering.
Sulfane Sulfur Is a Strong Inducer of the Multiple Antibiotic Resistance Regulator MarR in Escherichia coli

Sulfane sulfur, including persulfide and polysulfide, is produced from the metabolism of sulfur-containing organic compounds or from sulfide oxidation. It is a normal cellular component, participating in signaling. In bacteria, it modifies gene regulators to activate the expression of genes involved in sulfur metabolism. However, to determine whether sulfane sulfur is a common signal in bacteria, additional evidence is required. The ubiquitous multiple antibiotic resistance regulator (MarR) family of regulators controls the expression of numerous genes, but the intrinsic inducers are often elusive. Recently, two MarR family members, Pseudomonas aeruginosa MexR and Staphylococcus aureus MgrA, have been reported to sense sulfane sulfur. Here, we report that Escherichia coli MarR, the prototypical member of the family, also senses sulfane sulfur to form one or two disulfide or trisulfide bonds between two dimers. Although the tetramer with two disulfide bonds does not bind to its target DNA, our results suggest that the tetramer with one disulfide bond does bind to its target DNA, with reduced affinity. An MarR-repressed mKate reporter is strongly induced by polysulfide in E. coli. Further investigation is needed to determine whether sulfane sulfur is a common signal of the family members, but three members sense cellular sulfane sulfur to turn on antibiotic resistance genes. The findings offer additional support for a general signaling role of sulfane sulfur in bacteria.
Pulsed Electrical Stimulation Enhances Consistency of Directional Migration of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Electrical stimulation is a well-known strategy for regulating cell behavior, both in pathological and physiological processes such as wound healing, tissue regeneration, and embryonic development. Electrotaxis is the directional migration of cells toward the cathode or anode when subjected to electrical stimulation. In this study, we investigated the conditions for enhanced directional migration of electrically stimulated adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) during prolonged culture, using a customized agar-salt electrotaxis chamber. Exposure of ADSCs to a 1200 μA electric current for 3 h, followed by cessation of stimulation for 6 h and resumed stimulation for a further 3 h, increased directional cell migration toward the anode without inducing cell death. Moreover, Golgi polarization maintained the direction of polarity parallel to the direction of cell movement. Herein, we demonstrated that a pulsed electric current is sufficient to trigger directional migration of ADSCs in long-term culture while maintaining cell viability.
Substrate‐assisted activation and selectivity of the bacterial RavD effector deubiquitinylase

Deubiquitinylases (DUBs) catalyze the peptide bond cleavage of specific ubiquitin linkages at distinct protein substrates. Pathogens from viruses and bacteria independently developed effector proteins with DUB activity to mimic host DUB functions and circumvent immune responses. The effector protein RavD from Legionella pneumophila cleaves linear ubiquitin chains with an exclusive methionine‐1 selectivity. It thus performs as a functional analogue of the human DUB OTULIN, which achieves its selectivity only via a specialized proximal ubiquitin S1′ binding site as well as a substrate‐assisted activation of the catalytic triad. An analysis of the crystal structures of bacterial RavD in its free and di‐ubiquitin‐bound forms, in order to rationalize the structural basis for its selectivity and activation mechanism, is not fully conclusive. As these ambiguities might arise from the introduced double mutation of the di‐ubiquitin substrate in the RavD–di‐ubiquitin complex crystal structure, biomolecular modeling, and molecular dynamics sampling (1–2 μs for each system of RavD and OTULIN) were employed to reconstitute the physiological RavD–di‐ubiquitin complex. The simulations show that the distal S1 ubiquitin binding sites of RavD and OTULIN are similar in terms of interface area, composition, and ubiquitin binding affinity. The proximal S1′ site of RavD, in contrast, is significantly smaller and ubiquitin binding is weaker and more flexible than in OTULIN. Upon substrate access, the residues of the catalytic triad of RavD show a reduction of flexibility and a conformational transition toward a catalytically active state. Thus, the enzymatic activation of RavD is presumably also substrate‐assisted and a clear rationale for the common M1‐substrate selectivity.
Effects of Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury on Verbal IQ: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract Objectives: To examine the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on verbal IQ by severity and over time. Methods: A systematic review and subsequent meta-analysis of verbal IQ by TBI severity were conducted using a random effects model. Subgroup analysis included two epochs of time (e.g., <12 months postinjury and ≥12 months postinjury). Results: Nineteen articles met inclusion criteria after an extensive literature search in MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Embase, and CINAHL. Meta-analysis revealed negative effects of injury across severities for verbal IQ and at both time epochs except for mild TBI < 12 months postinjury. Statistical heterogeneity (i.e., between-study variability) stemmed from studies with inconsistent classification of mild TBI, small sample sizes, and in studies of mixed TBI severities, although not significant. Risk of bias on estimated effects was generally low (k = 15) except for studies with confounding bias (e.g., lack of group matching by socio-demographics; k = 2) and measurement bias (e.g., outdated measure at time of original study, translated measure; k = 2). Conclusions: Children with TBI demonstrate long-term impairment in verbal IQ, regardless of severity. Future studies are encouraged to include scores from subtests within verbal IQ (e.g., vocabulary, similarities, comprehension) in addition to functional language measures (e.g., narrative discourse, reading comprehension, verbal reasoning) to elucidate higher-level language difficulties experienced in this population.
Assessing intervention effects in a randomized trial within a social network

Studies of social networks provide unique opportunities to assess the causal effects of interventions that may impact more of the population than just those intervened on directly. Such effects are sometimes called peer or spillover effects, and may exist in the presence of interference, that is, when one individual's treatment affects another individual's outcome. Randomization‐based inference (RI) methods provide a theoretical basis for causal inference in randomized studies, even in the presence of interference. In this article, we consider RI of the intervention effect in the eX‐FLU trial, a randomized study designed to assess the effect of a social distancing intervention on influenza‐like‐illness transmission in a connected network of college students. The approach considered enables inference about the effect of the social distancing intervention on the per‐contact probability of influenza‐like‐illness transmission in the observed network. The methods allow for interference between connected individuals and for heterogeneous treatment effects. The proposed methods are evaluated empirically via simulation studies, and then applied to data from the eX‐FLU trial.
Anaerobic digestion of sulphate wastewater mediated by biochar

ABSTRACT In this paper, the influences of biochar on the anaerobic digestion of sulphate wastewater, including the COD removal rate, methane yield, intermediate products and the change of microbial community structure, were investigated. The results showed that sulphate could promote the anaerobic digestion with the SO4 2−/COD ratio increasing from 0 to 0.1, while the activity of MPB was inhibited, which led to the decrease of COD removal rate and methane yield with the SO4 2−/COD ratio increasing from 0.1 to 2. At 1 g biochar loading, 344.97 mL CH4/gCODremoval was obtained compared with the control group (220.70 CH4/gCODremoval) at 2 of SO4 2−/COD. Biochar could also reduce the secondary accumulation of NH4 +–N and TVFA. Meanwhile, methanogenic microorganisms were selectively enriched especially for methanobacterium, methanosaeta and methanolinea, while the growth of SRB was inhibited with biochar addition. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
RANSAC Feature Based Master-Slave Tracking System for Multi-AGV

In order to solve the transportation problem in large aircraft components assembly process, an AGV posture synchronization system is built, which utilizes a two-dimensional laser range finder and adaptive control method. Two-dimensional laser range finder is located in the front of AGV to collect real-time point cloud of environment. After tracking AGV section point cloud, we extract straight lines and turning points using the RANSAC algorithm, and estimate the relative posture accordingly. Then adaptive controller processes the position information to achieve master-slave tracking for multi-AGV. In experiment we used three sets of identical AGV; the average distance error was less than 5mm while the angle error was limited within 0.3 °. The results verified the reliability and practicability of our system, which can meet the requirements for transporting large parts.
Population subdivision promoted by a sea‐level‐change‐driven bottleneck: A glimpse from the evolutionary history of the mangrove plant Aegiceras corniculatum

Historic climate changes drive geographical populations of coastal plants to contract and recover dynamically, even die out completely. Species suffering from such bottlenecks usually lose intraspecific genetic diversity, but how do these events influence population subdivision patterns of coastal plants? Here, we investigated this question in the typical coastal plant: mangrove species Aegiceras corniculatum. Inhabiting the intertidal zone of the tropical and subtropical coast of the Indo‐West Pacific oceans, its populations are deemed to be greatly shaped by historic sea‐level fluctuations. Using dual methods of Sanger and Illumina sequencing, we found that the 18 sampled populations were structured into two groups, namely, the “Indo‐Malayan” group, comprising three subgroups (the northern South China Sea, Gulf of Bengal, and Bali), and the “Pan‐Australasia” group, comprising the subgroups of the southern South China Sea and Australasia. Based on the approximate Bayesian computations and Stairway Plot, we inferred that the southern South China Sea subgroup, which penetrates the interior of the “Indo‐Malayan” group, originated from the Australasia subgroup, accompanied by a severe bottleneck event, with a spot of gene flow from both the Australasia and “Indo‐Malayan” groups. Geographical barriers such as the Sundaland underlie the genetic break between Indian and Pacific Oceans, but the discontinuity between southern and northern South China Sea was originated from genetic drift in the bottleneck event. Hence, we revealed a case evidencing that the bottleneck event promoted population subdivision. This conclusion may be applicable in other taxa beyond coastal plants.
Relative Visibility of Internally versus Externally Illuminated On-Premise Signs

Poorly visible on-premise commercial signs have been associated with reduced safety because drivers trying to locate and make sense of these signs may drive slower than the rest of traffic and perform erratic, last-second maneuvers. One of the main reasons for reduced sign visibility is poor sign lighting. In addressing this issue, research has demonstrated that internally illuminated on-premise signs have 40% to 60% greater visibility than externally illuminated signs on a controlled test track. Even so, an ever-increasing number of jurisdictions are implementing sign ordinances that prohibit the use of internally illuminated on-premise signs, mainly for aesthetic reasons. The objective of this research was to expand on the earlier test track research by evaluating the relative visibility of internally and externally illuminated signs on open roads in the real world. The results of this research clearly demonstrate the superiority of internally illuminated signs across a wide variety of driving conditions, sign offsets, sizes, shapes, colors, external lighting designs, and quality.
Position specific physical performance and running intensity fluctuations in elite women’s football

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the physical performance of elite female football players during match play along with transient alterations in running performance following 1‐ and 5‐min univariate peak periods. 54 elite female players from four top‐level Norwegian teams were monitored for one season (n = 393 match observations), and physical performance data collected using STATSport GPS APEX. Results revealed significant differences in physical performance between the positions during full match play, particularly between wide and central players. Both full backs (FBs) and wide midfielders (WMs) covered more total distance (TD), high‐speed running distance (HSRD), and sprint distance (SpD) than center backs (CBs) (p < 0.05–0.001), while WMs also covered more HSRD than both central midfielders (CMs) (p < 0.01) and forwards (FWs) (p < 0.05), and more acceleration ‐and deceleration distance (Accdist and Decdist) than both CBs and CMs (p < 0.01–0.001). A similar pattern was observed for the peak period analysis, with FBs and WMs covering more SpD in peak 1 min than CBs and CM (p < 0.001) and more SpD in peak 5‐min than CBs, CMs, and FWs (p < 0.001). Irrespective of the variable analyzed, greater distances were covered during the peak 5‐min period than in the next‐5 and mean 5‐min periods (p < 0.001). Significant (p < 0.001), but small to trivial (Cohen's Dz: 0.07–0.20), decreases in distance covered were also observed for each variable following each univariate peak 5‐min period. In conclusion, practitioners should account for differences in physical performance when developing training programs for female football players and be aware of transient reductions in physical performance following univariate peak 1‐ and 5‐min periods. Specifically, the very high intensity in 1‐min peak periods adds support to the principal of executing speed endurance activities during training to mirror and be prepared for the physical demands of match play.
Just-in-Time Management of Precast Concrete Components

The just-in-time (JIT) philosophy has tremendous potential for managing the movement of precast concrete components from the prefabrication yard to, and within, the construction site. The space constraints for storage and the traffic congestion at the worksite can then be alleviated. By means of a survey and interviews, this paper helps a precast concrete supplier examine if contractors are ready to adopt the JIT philosophy for receiving and installing precast concrete components on-site. Lessons are drawn from the empirical findings to determine how contractors can prepare for JIT management of precast concrete components. The findings suggest that the contractors are, by and large, obscured by price and have generally overlooked the bigger picture of total costs. Only a minority of the respondents show an interest in JIT deliveries as a cost-saving management system. Conversely, the precasters are better prepared to provide logistical support for JIT deliveries. In this context, reimbursement of costs o.
Wellbeing and mental health among medical students in Indonesia: A descriptive study

Background: Medical students face high pressures to perform academically, which may lead to poor psychological well-being, burnout, and even mental illness. Aims: This study aims to evaluate the mental health, degree of burnout and substance misuse among medical students in Indonesia in order to to build a system that supports the prosperity of future doctors. Methods: In February to March 2020, we conducted an online survey of Indonesian medical students to assess burnout (using Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, OLBI), minor psychiatric illness (General Health Questionnaire 12, GHQ12), and alcohol abuse (CAGE questionnaire). Results/Conclusion: A total of 1,729 students from 29 universities participated in the study; 93% felt disengaged, 95% felt exhausted, and 74% were identified to have mild psychiatric illness. We discuss potential factors that need to be explored in further research, including further concerns related to developments since the pandemic, and the need for potential interventions at both local and national levels to enhance the wellbeing of medical students.
Temperature and creatine kinase changes during a 10d taper period in sprinters

Objective. The aim of this prospective cohort study, performed during a 10 d training camp, was to analyze the effect of a series of successive speed-power training sessions on the concurrent circadian changes in resting leg skin temperature and blood creatine kinase (CK) levels and to determine the correlation between them. Approach. Seventeen elite sprinters, aged 22–31 years, were examined. Every morning and evening, capillary blood samples were drawn to assay CK levels. Lower limb skin temperature was measured simultaneously, and thermal images were taken using an infrared camera. Main results. From the first day of the training camp, the base temperature levels began to drop to obtain a significant reduction from the 6th day (male) and from the 8th day (female) to the end of the camp. Simultaneously, CK levels increased in the male group from 8th to the end of the camp, but it did not change significantly in females. Regarding the circadian rhythm, the CK levels always rose during the day and declined during the night. The temperature decreased during the day and increased during the night until the 6th day. After that, the temperature changed oppositely till the end of camp, i.e. it increased during the day and decreased during the night. This could suggest that the training microcycle should last about a week because after this time there may be a disturbance in the temperature circadian rhythm and a significant CK accumulation Significance. Multi-day speed-power training induced a progressive reduction in resting skin temperature and an elevation in CK levels. It also altered the circadian rhythm of the body skin temperature, which may indicate that after about 6 d of regular exercise, physiological deregulation may occur.