Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kraft Pulp Biobleaching and Mediated Oxidation of a Nonphenolic Substrate by Laccase from Streptomyces cyaneus CECT 3335

ABSTRACT A new laccase (EC 1.10.3.2) produced by Streptomyces cyaneus CECT 3335 in liquid media containing soya flour (20 g per liter) was purified to homogeneity. The physicochemical, catalytic, and spectral characteristics of this enzyme, as well as its suitability for biobleaching of eucalyptus kraft pulps, were assessed. The purified laccase had a molecular mass of 75 kDa and an isoelectric point of 5.6, and its optimal pH and temperature were 4.5 and 70°C, respectively. The activity was strongly enhanced in the presence of Cu2+, Mn2+, and Mg2+ and was completely inhibited by EDTA and sodium azide. The purified laccase exhibited high levels of activity against 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) (ABTS) and 2,6-dimethoxyphenol and no activity against tyrosine. The UV-visible spectrum of the purified laccase was the typical spectrum of the blue laccases, with an absorption peak at 600 nm and a shoulder around 330 to 340 nm. The ability of the purified laccase to oxidize a nonphenolic compound, such as veratryl alcohol, in the presence of ABTS opens up new possibilities for the use of bacterial laccases in the pulp and paper industry. We demonstrated that application of the laccase from S. cyaneus in the presence of ABTS to biobleaching of eucalyptus kraft pulps resulted in a significant decrease in the kappa number (2.3 U) and an important increase in the brightness (2.2%, as determined by the International Standard Organization test) of pulps, showing the suitability of laccases produced by streptomycetes for industrial purposes.
Fluctuations in the international prices of oil, dairy products, beef and lamb between 2000 and 2008: A review of market-specific demand and supply factors

This paper looks at the boom period between 2000 and 2008 in the international prices of four internationally-traded commodities: oil, dairy products, beef and lamb. All are important drivers of macroeconomic dynamics in New Zealand. Our aim is to provide overviews of the demand and supply factors specific to each market and product, thus adding colour to more general analyses of the macroeconomic and financial drivers of the cycles in world commodity markets over the period. For each commodity market we examine here, we set out the structures of the markets and the major drivers of world demand and supply, and discuss the apparent relative strength of each of the drivers.
Trust, Opportunism and Governance: A Process and Control Model

In this paper a process and control model is developed for the analysis and design of inter-firm relations, in which both opportunism and trust play a role. Its aim is to develop a tool for the analysis, diagnosis and design of inter-firm partnerships. It takes into account the value of the partner, relative to alternat ives, and the risk of the relation. Risk depends on the incentives that the partner may have towards opportunism, his opportunities for opportunism and his 'pro pensity' towards opportunism. The latter is related to trust. A partner's incent ives towards opportunism depend on the uniqueness of the value that he offers, on one's own switching costs and on the partner's dependence on the relation. The underlying theory employs both transaction cost economics and social exchange theory. On the basis of the model, values and risks can be balanced in different ways: there are adversarial strategies that jeopardize value, and cooperative strategies that build value. The model can be used to explore viable sequences of strategies of governance, depending on different conditions. As an illustration, it is used for an analysis of ways to initiate a relation.
Beyond the Central Tendency: Quantile Regression as a Tool in Quantitative Investing

Quantitative investors frequently analyze factor performance using regression based on the familiar ordinary least squares approach. This is highly effective for understanding the central tendency within a dataset, but will often be less useful for assessing the behavior of datapoints close to the upper or lower extremes within a population. But from the perspective of active investors or risk managers, the datapoints at the extremes may be precisely the ones of greatest interest. For such applications, a more appropriate methodology is quantile regression. The authors show how quantile regression represents an extension of the conventional ordinary least squares method, and present an empirical analysis of factor effectiveness applied to a universe of U.S. small-cap stocks in order to illustrate the insights offered by this technique.
Arabidopsis Novel Glycine-Rich Plasma Membrane PSS1 Protein Enhances Disease Resistance in Transgenic Soybean Plants1[OPEN]

Arabidopsis nonhost resistance gene PSS1 encoding an unknown glycine-rich plasma membrane protein has shown to enhance sudden death syndrome resistance in transgenic soybean plants. Nonhost resistance is defined as the immunity of a plant species to all nonadapted pathogen species. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) ecotype Columbia-0 is nonhost to the oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora sojae and the fungal plant pathogen Fusarium virguliforme that are pathogenic to soybean (Glycine max). Previously, we reported generating the pss1 mutation in the pen1-1 genetic background as well as genetic mapping and characterization of the Arabidopsis nonhost resistance Phytophthora sojae-susceptible gene locus, PSS1. In this study, we identified six candidate PSS1 genes by comparing single-nucleotide polymorphisms of (1) the bulked DNA sample of seven F2:3 families homozygous for the pss1 allele and (2) the pen1-1 mutant with Columbia-0. Analyses of T-DNA insertion mutants for each of these candidate PSS1 genes identified the At3g59640 gene encoding a glycine-rich protein as the putative PSS1 gene. Later, complementation analysis confirmed the identity of At3g59640 as the PSS1 gene. PSS1 is induced following P. sojae infection as well as expressed in an organ-specific manner. Coexpression analysis of the available transcriptomic data followed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction suggested that PSS1 is coregulated with ATG8a (At4g21980), a core gene in autophagy. PSS1 contains a predicted single membrane-spanning domain. Subcellular localization study indicated that it is an integral plasma membrane protein. Sequence analysis suggested that soybean is unlikely to contain a PSS1-like defense function. Following the introduction of PSS1 into the soybean cultivar Williams 82, the transgenic plants exhibited enhanced resistance to F. virguliforme, the pathogen that causes sudden death syndrome.
Influence of Initial Dissolved Oxygen Concentration on Fenton's Reagent Degradation

The effect of initial dissolved oxygen concentration (IDOC) on Fenton's reagent degradation of a dyestuff, Reactive Black 5 was explored in this study. The study was designed, conducted and analysed based on Central Composite Rotatable Design using a 3-l lab-scale reactor. The participation of O2 in the process was experimentally observed and appears to be affected by the dosage of the reagents used in the study. The IDOC was found to have a significant influence on the process. Reducing the IDOC from 7.5 mg l−1 to 2.5 mg l−1 increased the removal of TOC by an average of about 10%. Reduction of IDOC from 10 mg l−1 to 0 mg l−1 enhanced the TOC removal by about 30%. The negative influence of IDOC is likely to be caused by the competition between the O2 and the reagents for the organoradicals. A model describing the relationship between initial TOC removal, reagent dosage and IDOC has also been developed.
Cloud-based remote virtual prototyping platform for embedded control applications: Cloud-based infrastructure for large-scale embedded hardware-related programming laboratories

The design and test of Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoCs) including software is one of the biggest challenges in today's system design. This applies in particular when short time-to-market constraints impose serious limitations on the exploration of the design space. The use of virtual platforms can help in decreasing the development cycles. In this paper, we present a cloud-based environment allowing the design of virtual platforms and prototyping of the system including complex software with prerecorded data or testbenches. Afterwards, the created design can also be synthesized for Xilinx FPGAs. Additionally, this paper presents the use of this remote virtual prototyping environment in a hardware-related programming laboratory with more than 350 participating undergraduate students. This large number of attendees leads to a lot of issues regarding the supervisory relationship as well as providing enough hardware resources in terms of boards. Nevertheless, we want to give the students hands-on experience when programming an embedded system on an FPGA-board. The cloud-based infrastructure allows us to respond to these difficulties by implementing a Software-in-the-Loop simulation based on an instruction set simulator. Doing so the students can design and implement their codes for the targeted architecture and prototype and debug it on a virtual platform. Since the course is mandatory we expect many students with limited experience about hardware-related programming. In this paper we show that especially these students will profit from the additional possibilities which are offered by a remotely available virtual prototyping platform.
Nonparametric Tests of Utility Maximization and Weak Separability for Consumption, Leisure and Money

Some of the most fundamental assumptions of economics are utility maximization and weak separability of the arguments in the represen tative consumer's utility function. This paper contains results from nonparametric tests of these assumptions about consumer behavior. The authors find that quarterly per capita data on consumption goods, le isure, and monetary assets are consistent with utility maximization. Further, consumption goods and leisure meet necessary and sufficient conditions for weak separability. Additionally, one grouping of relat ively liquid monetary assets meets the necessary conditions for weak separability. They also test and find no evidence of homothetic prefe rences. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.
Personal Taxation, Pension Wealth, and Portfolio Composition

This paper emphasizes the roles played by personal taxation and pension wealth in portfolio choice and composition. A theoretical discussion of the impacts of taxation and participation in social security and private pension systems on individual wealth allocation is followed by empirical evidence based on U.S. cross-section data. Both effects prove to be significant. Anticipated social security and private pension benefits exert a measurable influence on household portfolio allocation. Their omission from an asset demand model may lead to a misinterpretation of the impact of taxation on portfolio composition.
On FDH context-dependent data envelopment analysis

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric technique for measuring and evaluating the relative eciencies of decision making units (DMUs) with multiple inputs and multiple outputs. In the DEA literature, a context-dependent DEA refers to a DEA approach where a set of DMUs are evaluated against a particular evaluation context. Each evaluation context represents an ecient frontier
A gastrin precursor, gastrin‐gly, upregulates VEGF expression in colonic epithelial cells through an HIF‐1‐independent mechanism

One of the major angiogenic factor released by tumor cells is VEGF. Its high expression is correlated with poor prognosis in colorectal tumors. In colon cancer, gastrin gene expression is also upregulated. In these tumors, gastrin precursors are mainly produced and act as growth factors. Recently, a study has also shown that the gastrin precursor, G‐gly induced in vitro tubules formation by vascular endothelial cells suggesting a potential proangiogenic role. Here, we demonstrate that stimulation of human colorectal cancer cell lines with G‐gly increases the expression of the proangiogenic factor VEGF at the mRNA and protein levels. In addition, blocking the progastrin autocrine loop leads to a downregulation of VEGF. Although HIF‐1 is a major transcriptional activator for VEGF our results suggest an alternative mechanism for VEGF regulation in normoxic conditions, independent of HIF‐1 that involves the PI3K/AKT pathway. Indeed we show that G‐gly does not lead to HIF‐1 accumulation in colon cancer cells. Moreover, we found that G‐gly activates the PI3K/AKT pathway and inhibition of this pathway reverses the effects of G‐gly observed on VEGF mRNA and protein levels. In correlation with these results, we observed in vivo, on colon tissue sections from transgenic mice overexpressing G‐gly, an increase in VEGF expression in absence of HIF‐1 accumulation. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that gastrin precursors, known to promote colon epithelial cells proliferation and survival can also contribute to the angiogenesis process by stimulating the expression of the proangiogenic factor VEGF via the PI3K pathway and independently of hypoxia conditions.
A Simple Poverty Scorecard for Kenya

This paper uses the 1997 Kenya Welfare Monitoring Survey to construct an easy-to-use scorecard that estimates the likelihood that a person in Kenya has expenditure below a given poverty line. The scorecard uses 10 simple indicators that field workers can quickly collect and verify. Poverty scores can be computed on paper in the field in about five minutes. The scorecard’s bias and precision, as well as sample-size formula, are reported for a range of poverty lines. The poverty scorecard is a practical way for pro-poor programs in Kenya to monitor poverty rates, track changes in poverty rates over time, and target services.
Predictors of Mammography Use in the Past Year among Elderly Women

Thirty-two personal characteristics were examined as potential predictors of mammography use in the past year in a geriatric clinic. Interviews assessed demographic, health status, health service utilization, health belief, and psychological and social variables (n = 242, mean age = 76 years). Four variables were independently associated with mammography use in logistic regression analysis: age, historical mammography use, perceived severity, and perceived barriers. The inverse relationship between age and mammography use in the past year was not modified by health status, functional status, and the other independently predictive variables. The authors conclude that geriatrics specialty care does not eliminate the age-associated decline in mammography use that has been previously described. The factors associated with mammography use in this sample were similar to those that have been described in younger populations of women. Variables examined because of specific gerontologic considerations were not independently associated with mammography use in the past year.
Human X‐DING‐CD4 mediates resistance to HIV‐1 infection through novel paracrine‐like signaling

X‐DING‐CD4 is a novel phosphatase mediating antiviral responses to HIV‐1 infection. This protein is constitutively expressed and secreted by HIV‐1 resistant CD4+ T cells and its mRNA transcription is up‐regulated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HIV‐1 elite controllers. The secreted/soluble X‐DING‐CD4 protein form is of particular importance because it blocks virus transcription when added to HIV‐1 susceptible cells. The present study aimed to determine the contribution of this factor to the induction of the antiviral response in target cells. We found that soluble X‐DING‐CD4 enters cells by endocytosis and that influx of this protein induced transcription of interferon‐α and endogenous X‐DING‐CD4 mRNA in transformed CD4+ T cells and primary macrophages. Treatment of HIV‐1 susceptible cells with exogenous X‐DING‐CD4 caused depletion of phosphorylated p50 and p65 nuclear factor kappa β subunits and a significant reduction in p50/p65 nuclear factor kappa β binding to the HIV‐1 long terminal repeat. Taken together, these findings indicate a novel antiviral mechanism mediated by the influx of soluble X‐DING‐CD4, its signaling to promote self‐amplification, and functional duality as an endogenous innate immunity effector and exogenous factor regulating gene expression in bystander cells.
Semi-Supervised Adaptive Label Distribution Learning for Facial Age Estimation

Lack of sufficient training data with exact ages is still a challenge for facial age estimation. To deal with such problem, a method called Label Distribution Learning (LDL) was proposed to utilize the neighboring ages while learning a particular age. Later, an adaptive version of LDL called ALDL was proposed to generate a proper label distribution for each age. However, the adaptation process requires more training data, which creates a dilemma between the performance of ALDL and the training data. In this paper, we propose an algorithm called Semi-supervised Adaptive Label Distribution Learning (SALDL) to solve the dilemma and improve the performance using unlabeled data for facial age estimation. On the one hand, the utilization of unlabeled data helps to improve the adaptation process. On the other hand, the adapted label distributions conversely reinforce the semi-supervised process. As a result, they can promote each other to get better performance. Experimental results show that SALDL performs remarkably better than state-of-the-art algorithms when there are only limited accurately labeled data available.
Secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with chronic kidney disease: Diagnosis, pharmacological and surgical treatment -

Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is a secondary adaptive response to maintain calcium homeostasis and caused by any condition associated with chronically reduced serum calcium (Ca) levels, and low serum Ca levels lead to compensatory overactivity of the parathyroid gland. It is a common complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is part of the CKD-mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD). SHPT is associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality; thus, SHPT control is recommended. SHPT develops in patients with CKD due to a variety of mechanisms including increased phosphorus and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), and decreased calcium and 1.25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels. Patients present with various bone disorders, cardiovascular disease, and certain patterns of biochemical abnormalities. The diagnosis of patients with SHPT require a combination of clinical investigation and laboratory findings. Many patients with this disease are asymptomatic and only have abnormalities detectable by laboratory and radiologic studies. Laboratory tests may reveal hypocalcemia, normocalcemia or hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia. In addition, patients wirh SHPT have extremely elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels, elevated or normal alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels and decereased vitamin D (vit D) levels. Patients also can become symptomatic. Untreated SHPT leads to progressive bone disease, osteitis fibrosa cystica, and soft tissue calcifications. Patients may experience intractable bone pain, fractures, pruritis, soft tissue or vascular calcifications, calciphylaxis, erythropoietin resistant anemia, and mental status changes. Medical treatment consists of controlling hyperphosphatemia, vit D analogs and Ca administration, and calcimimetic agents. The majority of patients with SHPT can be managed by medical treatment. Despite improvements in medical therapy, it does not always provide control of the SHPT. Some patients require surgical treatment. The surgical indications include PTH levels >500-800 pg/ml associated with hypercalcemia and/or hyperphosphatemia despite medical therapy. Other indications include calciphylaxis, fractures, bone pain or pruritis. Pre-operative imaging is only occasionally helpful except in re-operative parathyroidectomy (PTX). Operative approaches include subtotal PTX, total PTX (TPTX) with or without autotransplantation, and possible thymectomy. Each approach has its own proponents, advantages and disadvantages which are discussed. Hypocalcemia is the most common postoperative complication requiring aggressive calcium administration. Benefits of surgical treatment may include improved survival, bone mineral density and alleviation of symptoms.
Modeling the Long Memory Behavior in U.S. Housing Price Volatility

In this study, we analyze state and metropolitan housing prices in the United States, focusing on the long range dependence of price volatility proxied by squared and absolute returns based on the fractional integration approach. We use quarterly data on state house price indices from each of the 50 U.S. states and the S&P/Case-Shiller house price indices for 20 U.S. metropolitan areas. Using parametric and semi-parametric long memory methods, we observe that most of the estimates of the fractional differencing parameter in the squared and absolute returns values are positive and constrained between 0 and 0.5, implying stationary long memory behavior.
Leadership and program evaluation practices influencing school improvement initiatives

This qualitative study employed various qualitative data collection procedures to report on leadership and program evaluation practices being utilized and explored within the framework of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI). The intent of this research was to highlight practices of teachers as leaders while determining the manner in which programs and initiatives are evaluated. Document review, a written questionnaire, and personal interviews were conducted to focus on the perspectives of school administrators and teachers involved in AISI projects. Patterns and themes were identified that illustrated the attitudes and opinions of Alberta teachers and administrators with regard to the leadership strategies employed. These included ensuring the development of vision, mission, and improvement planning at the school level; emphasizing the importance of collaboration and teamwork; and promoting valuable organizational learning through the development of professional learning communities (PLCs). The evidence strongly suggests that Alberta teachers and administrators advocate the continuance of AISI in the province. There is some indication that both teachers and administrators are excited, although somewhat overwhelmed, by the protocol put in place through AISI. The study reveals various strategies that administrators employ to affect the sustainability of school improvement projects.
Prophets and Losses: Reassessing the Returns to Analysts' Stock Recommendations

After a string of years in which security analysts' top stock picks significantly outperformed their plans, the year 2000 was a disaster. During that year the stocks least favorably recommended by analysts earned an annualized market-adjusted return of 48.66 percent while the stocks most highly recommended fell 31.20 percent, a return difference of almost 80 percentage points. This pattern prevailed during most months of 2000, regardless of whether the market was rising or falling, and was observed for both tech and non-tech stocks. While we cannot conclude that the 2000 results are necessarily driven by an increased emphasis on investment banking by analysts, our findings should add to the debate over the usefulness of analysts' stock recommendations to investors. They should also serve to alert researchers to the possibility that excluding the year 2000 from their sample period could have a significant impact on any conclusions they draw concerning analysts' stock recommendations.