Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Site‐Specific Installations of Nε‐Monomethyl‐L‐Lysine into Histone Proteins by Cell‐Based and Cell‐Free Protein Synthesis

Lysine methylation is one of the important post‐translational modifications of histones, and produces an Nε‐mono‐, di‐, or trimethyllysine residues. Multiple and site‐specific lysine methylations of histones are essential to define epigenetic statuses and control heterochromatin formation, DNA repair, and transcription regulation. A method was previously developed to build an analogue of Nε‐monomethyllysine, with cysteine substituting for lysine. Here, we have developed a new method of preparing histones bearing multiple Nε‐monomethyllysine residues at specified positions. Release factor 1‐knockout (RFzero) Escherichia coli cells or a cell‐free system based on the RFzero cell lysate was used for protein synthesis, as in RFzero cells UAG is redefined as a sense codon for non‐canonical amino acids. During protein synthesis, a tert‐butyloxycarbonyl‐protected Nε‐monomethyllysine analogue is ligated to Methanosarcina mazei pyrrolysine tRNA (tRNAPyl) by M. mazei pyrrolysyl‐tRNA synthetase mutants, and is translationally incorporated into one or more positions specified by the UAG codon. Protecting groups on the protein are then removed with trifluoroacetic acid to generate Nε‐monomethyllysine residues. We installed Nε‐monomethyllysine residues at positions 4, 9, 27, 36, and/or 79 of human histone H3. Each of the Nε‐monomethyllysine residues within the produced histone H3 was recognized by its specific antibody. Furthermore, the antibody recognized the authentic Nε‐monomethyllysine residue at position 27 better than the Nε‐monomethyllysine analogue built with cysteine. Mass spectrometry analyses also confirmed the lysine modifications on the produced histone H3. Thus, our method enables the installation of authentic Nε‐monomethyllysines at multiple positions within a protein for large‐scale production.
Self-quotient-referential bilateral filter for images under varying lighting conditions

This paper presents edge-preserving smoothing by self-quotient-referential bilateral filter for images under varying lighting conditions. Edge preserving smoothing is a fundamental feature extraction from the image for industrial applications. Bilateral filter is a promising nonlinear filter, which can smooth the image while preserving edge information. However, when we handle the images under light variation, the contrast of edge part is high in high contrast area, while the contrast of edge part is low in low contrast area. As bilateral filter basically uses the information of local intensity to preserve edge information, it is difficult to handle these types of images. It cannot preserve the edge information around low contrast area. Our method solves this problem by referring the self-quotient image instead of the original image in bilateral filter. To show the effectiveness of our method, we conducted some comparison experiments.
Interaction Effects in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems

The past decade has witnessed a surprising growth in the popularity of mixed-member electoral systems. Under these systems, voters choose representatives simultaneously under both proportional representation (PR) and single-member district plurality (SMDP) rules. It is widely accepted that SMDP rules tend to winnow competition down toward two large parties, and evidence from mixed systems suggests that this Duvergerian “gravity” reduces the number of parties surviving SMDP competition under mixed systems as well. Nevertheless, we argue, simultaneous balloting under PR rules softens this winnowing effect, operating as a “centrifugal force” that prevents Duvergerian gravity from reducing competition to the degree it does under pure SMDP systems. Thus, these newsystems produce effects unanticipated by their designers. To test for the presence of this centrifugal force, we examine elite-level electoral strategies in Germany, Japan, and Italy and compare district-level SMDP election results from pure systems with those of mixed-member systems.
Treatment Outcome of Multidrug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal

The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with treatment outcome of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases in Nepal. A retrospective analysis of MDR-TB cases by demographic determinants and treatment was conducted. A total of 494 MDR-TB cases were registered from 2005 to 2008, with data obtained from the National Tuberculosis Center. Chi-squared tests were used to assess statistically the association between smear and culture conversion and treatment outcome. Determinants were analyzed with the use of Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models to generate estimates of the associations with the time to treatment outcome. Sputum conversion status and culture conversion status were positively associated with treatment outcome for MDR-TB. In a multiple Cox proportional hazards regression model, no determinants were found to be associated with time to cure.
Cloning and Expression of a Novel pH-sensitive Two Pore Domain K+ Channel from Human Kidney*

A complementary DNA encoding a novel K+ channel, called TASK-2, was isolated from human kidney and its gene was mapped to chromosome 6p21. TASK-2 has a low sequence similarity to other two pore domain K+ channels, such as TWIK-1, TREK-1, TASK-1, and TRAAK (18–22% of amino acid identity), but a similar topology consisting of four potential membrane-spanning domains. In transfected cells, TASK-2 produces noninactivating, outwardly rectifying K+ currents with activation potential thresholds that closely follow the K+equilibrium potential. As for the related TASK-1 and TRAAK channels, the outward rectification is lost at high external K+concentration. The conductance of TASK-2 was estimated to be 14.5 picosiemens in physiological conditions and 59.9 picosiemens in symmetrical conditions with 155 mm K+. TASK-2 currents are blocked by quinine (IC50 = 22 μm) and quinidine (65% of inhibition at 100 μm) but not by the other classical K+ channel blockers tetraethylammonium, 4-aminopyridine, and Cs+. They are only slightly sensitive to Ba2+, with less than 17% of inhibition at 1 mm. As TASK-1, TASK-2 is highly sensitive to external pH in the physiological range. 10% of the maximum current was recorded at pH 6.5 and 90% at pH 8.8. Unlike all other cloned channels with two pore-forming domains, TASK-2 is essentially absent in the brain. In human and mouse, TASK-2 is mainly expressed in the kidney, where in situ hybridization shows that it is localized in cortical distal tubules and collecting ducts. This localization, as well as its functional properties, suggest that TASK-2 could play an important role in renal K+ transport.
Listing Standards and Fraud

Statistics reporting litigated cases of fraud on an exchange-by-exchange basis are not readily available to investors. This paper introduces data from three countries with multiple exchanges operating under different listing standards – Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States – to show litigated cases of fraud significantly vary by country, and the different exchanges within the country. Comparisons are also made to Brazil, China and Germany to assess out-of-sample inferences. The data examined suggest there are significant differences in the nature of observed fraud across exchanges within the United States; by contrast, outside the United States there appears to be a comparative lack of enforcement. The data also suggest policy implications for the ways in which fraud should ideally be reported to improve investor knowledge, market transparency and market quality.
Interview with Rhymer Rigby, author of 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide an interview with Rhymer Rigby, UK based journalist and author of 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World.Design/methodology/approach – The interview is conducted by an independent interviewer.Findings – Rhymer Rigby is a journalist based in the UK. He writes a weekly slot for the Financial Times and has contributed to publications ranging from the Sunday Telegraph and Management Today to GQ and Conde Nast Traveller. Before going freelance he was featured editor for Business 2.0 and a section editor for Management Today and Human Resources.Practical implications – In profiling business people who have left a lasting and significant impact Rhymer provides the reader with a fascinating insight into the methods and styles of those who reshaped their business sectors.Originality/value – Rhymer presents an accessible description of 28 highly successful and pioneering business thinkers, both in terms of their entrepreneurship and their personal lives, offer.
Restoring the bush on private land: perspectives of landholders in Victoria

Abstract Change in the extent and quality of native vegetation in rural landscapes in Victoria has not occurred evenly, or predictably, across the state over the past 50 years. There is variation in the presence of remnant native vegetation across land tenure, agronomic potential and from site-specific historical events. Even when there is an increase in native vegetation on farmland, it is uncertain how different landholders perceive this change and the extent to which environmental programs influence their management. This research explores the scale on which different landholders were increasing native vegetation on their properties; and the influence of environmental programs on landholders’ efforts to increase native vegetation. Combined qualitative and quantitative data reveal that a wide range of landholders is making considerable effort to increase the scale of native vegetation on their properties; however an increase in the extent of native vegetation in the wider district, particularly by natural regeneration, is not always viewed favourably by some landholders; and environmental programs remain an important catalyst across a spectrum of landholders for the management of native vegetation. The findings and the implications for natural resource management in the Australian context are discussed, particularly in relation to improving understanding of how to engage landholders to restore native vegetation on farmland.
Differential change in neuroactive steroid sensitivity during ethanol withdrawal.

The progesterone metabolite 3alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-pregnan-20-one (3alpha,5alpha-P or allopregnanolone) is a potent positive modulator of gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) (GABA(A)) receptors. Although it is well documented that chronic ethanol (EtOH) administration produces cross-tolerance to the positive modulatory effect of benzodiazepines and GABA at GABA(A) receptors, recent findings suggest that sensitivity to 3alpha,5alpha-P is enhanced during EtOH withdrawal. In addition, EtOH-naive inbred strains of mice, which differ in EtOH withdrawal severity (DBA/2 >> C57BL/6), had marked differences in behavioral sensitivity to 3alpha,5alpha-P. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine whether C57BL/6 (B6) and DBA/2 (D2) mice would be differentially sensitive to several of the pharmacological effects of 3alpha,5alpha-P during EtOH withdrawal. Male mice were exposed to EtOH vapor or air for 72 h. During withdrawal from EtOH, animals were injected with 3alpha,5alpha-P (0, 3.2, 10, or 17 mg/kg i.p.) and tested for activity and anxiolysis on the elevated plus maze, muscle relaxation, ataxia, and seizure protection following pentylenetetrazol. Sensitivity to the anticonvulsant effect of 3alpha,5alpha-P was enhanced during EtOH withdrawal in B6, but not D2 mice. In contrast, sensitivity to the muscle relaxant effects of 3alpha,5alpha-P was reduced in EtOH-withdrawing B6 and D2 mice, with a suggestion of decreased sensitivity to the anxiolytic effect of 3alpha,5alpha-P during EtOH withdrawal in B6. These results suggest that sensitization to the anticonvulsant effect of 3alpha,5alpha-P during EtOH withdrawal does not generalize across all genotypes nor does it generalize to all of the pharmacological effects of 3alpha,5alpha-P.
Entrenched Elitism in Trade Unions in Poland and Romania: An Explanation for the Lack of Union Strength and Success?

This article argues that democratic decision-making improves trade union strength and success during policy-making. Elitism and lack of democracy, on the other hand, diminish unions' strength. Elitism, in this respect, remains entrenched in trade union structures during internal decision-making. The author's argument is twofold: both the ability of trade union leaders to develop links with the rank-and-file and reduce hierarchy during internal decision-making influence the strength of organizations. Both factors help carry the spontaneous and local demands of union members onto the national agenda. This article assigns a crucial role to unions and interest groups in providing a system of interest representation sensitive to interests that might go unacknowledged in a system whose only devices of representation were political parties and representatives with territorial constituencies. However, this article does not idealize groups but rather questions their ability to represent the interests of their members. The author tests the plausibility of these hypotheses with data from interviews with trade union confederation and federation representatives from Romania and Poland. This article concludes that organizational democracy positively affects union success.
Block precoder-based energy constrained DFE

Decision feedback equalizers (DFE) employing energy constraints have been successfully used to limit the feedback of wrong decisions that lead to the well known error propagation phenomenon. This paper extends the energy constraint formulation proposed for the scalar DFE, to the class of block memoryless DFE structures that employ zero-padding transmission redundancy. We further show how to make use of fast order recursive relations in order to obtain the filters efficiently. Computer simulations verify the improved BER performance of the proposed scheme over its unconstrained block DFE counterpart
Conjugational Genetic Exchange in the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius: Intragenic Recombination with Minimal Dependence on Marker Separation

ABSTRACT In Sulfolobus acidocaldarius conjugation assays, recombinant frequency was relatively constant for marker separations from 1,154 bp down to about 50 bp and readily detectable at 10 bp. Three-factor crosses revealed little, if any, genetic linkage over distances of 500 to 600 bp, and large deletion mutants were good donors but poor recipients in matings. The results indicate that most intragenic recombination events occur at one of the mutations, not in the interval between them.
Thermal and Economic Measures of Energy Use: Differences and Implications

Statistical agencies often report aggregate energy use by expressing different energy types on a common basis with thermal conversion factors. Before the energy crisis of the 1970s Turvey and Nobay (1965) indicated some pitfalls associated with thermal conversion factors in the analysis of aggregate energy use. This point has been emphasized again by Berndt (1978). More recently Hong (1983) compared two Divisia indexes of energy use-one of the expenditure shares and the other with thermal shares-and he found the two indexes behaved differently in the United States from 1950 to 1978. The relationship between the relative prices of energy types, which change over time, and their relative thermal contents, which are usually taken to be constant, explains why these two measures of energy use follow different paths.
Ozonation of Municipal Wastewater Effluents

The increasing use of ozone in the treatment of municipal wastewater eﬀuents has been stimulated by the need to achieve higher efﬂuent quality and greater compliance with physicochemical and microbiological quality standards before discharge. These standards are applied when the efﬂuent may pose a risk to the public through direct contact and where the efﬂuent is used for agricultural purposes or water reclamation. Although various alternative technologies exist for upgrading wastewater efﬂuents, ozone treatment may be the most appropriate approach in particular cases. This review summarizes the current status of the use of ozone for treating municipal efﬂuents with respect to disinfection efﬁciency, its effect on the treatability of the efﬂuent and on aggregate efﬂuent parameters, the potential for the formation of ozonation byproducts, and its effect on the toxicity and mutagenicity of the efﬂuent. The importance of treatment conditions (e.g., contact time) is also reviewed.
The 2008 Presidential and Congressional Elections: Anti‐Bush Referendum and Prospects for the Democratic Majority

The 2008 election extended the national trend that had given con­ trol of Congress to the Democrats in the 2006 midterm two years earlier. The election was again essentially a referendum on the George W. Bush adminis­ tration, but this time the referendum also encompassed a presidential election. The Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, capped an improbable journey to the White House by winning the largest share of votes cast for any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, defeating Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona by 52.9 percent to 45.7 percent. Obama took all 19 states John Kerry had won in 2004 plus another 9, including 3 in the South, ending up with a 365-173 electoral vote margin. Democrats picked up 21 seats in the House of Representatives and 8 in the Senate. The House victories, added to the 31 seats they gained in 2006 and some pickups in subsequent special elections, left them holding 257 seats to the Republicans' 178, a gain of 55 seats over the two elections. In the Senate, where for the second consecutive election Democrats retained every seat they defended, their total grew to 59 seats, 14 more than they had held after the 2004 election (Table 1). 1 The cumulative results of the congressional elections effectively overturned the verdict of 1994, reducing Republican congressional representation to what it had been before the Party's historic rise to majority status 14 years earlier. On the congressional side, the 2008 elections shared a number of notable similarities with 2006, although important differences were also evident. Like 2006,2008 was a referendum on the Republican Party as well as its leader. For
Economics of Quality: Choosing among Prevention Alternatives

Recent surveys on the use of quality‐related costs in manufacturing industries indicated that, while quality cost data are valuable for deciding on prevention activities, most companies do not understand the fundamental economics of quality. In addition, the published literature fails to discuss this issue adequately. The literature does indicate that cost accounting systems are inadequate in providing quality cost data and that executives often underestimate the impact of quality on the company′s profitability. To help overcome these problems a cost/ benefit classification is proposed and technical limits are equated to the Cost of Quality for capital‐intensive prevention projects. The manufacture of ethanol is used as an example to demonstrate the concepts and methodology of using technical limit analysis and its conversion to an economic “incentive” using engineering economics. This economic incentive could be used in Cost of Quality reporting and for the management of this technology.
Women's Talk about Mentoring and Socialization in Local Policies

Research on mentoring and socialization in organizations determined that there are benefits to mentors, protégés, and organizations derived from these relationships (Burlew, 1991; Kram, 1983). However, previous research largely ignores mentoring and socialization at all levels of politics and political organizations and this study attempts to address this oversight. I pose questions about the extent to which women are mentored in local politics and political organizations. If they are being mentored, who is doing the mentoring? Are they being socialized into politics and political organizations and, if so, by whom? A total of nine women were interviewed and shared their experiences of mentoring and socialization in local politics. Interviewees ranged in age from the early 30s to the late 70s and from School Board to Mayor.
The emergent development of public portals moulding the state‐individual relationship

Purpose – The relationship between the state and the individual is, more than ever before, being mediated by public portals. The requirement specifications for public portals can be said to define the level of expectation among influential actors concerning the roles of the individual in this relationship at a certain point in time. At the same time, they are part of an emergent‐development process. The purpose of this paper is to test this perspective in the empirical context of healthcare.Design/methodology/approach – This research proposes a framework for analysing the requirement specifications for public portals, making various roles possible, such as being a patient, a citizen, a consumer, and a customer. The framework is tested in a case study of a Swedish national healthcare portal.Findings – It can be concluded that prominent actors in this particular context of design defined the requirement specification so that the patient and citizen roles were well supported, whereas the roles of the consume.
Enhanced bioavailability of zeaxanthin in a milk-based formulation of wolfberry (Gou Qi Zi;Fructus barbarum L.)

The carotenoid zeaxanthin is concentrated within the macula. Increased macular zeaxanthin is suggested to lower the risk of age-related macular degeneration. The small red berry, wolfberry (Fructus barbarum L.; Gou Qi Zi and Kei Tze), is one of the richest natural sources of zeaxanthin. However, carotenoid bioavailability is low, and food-based products with enhanced bioavailability are of interest. The present study investigated zeaxanthin bioavailability from three wolfberry formulations. Berries were homogenised in hot (80°C) water, warm (40°C) skimmed milk and hot (80°C) skimmed milk, with freeze drying of each preparation into a powdered form. A zeaxanthin-standardised dose (15mg) of each was consumed, in randomised order, together with a standardised breakfast by twelve healthy, consenting subjects in a cross-over trial, with a 3–5-week washout period between treatments. Blood samples were taken via a venous cannula immediately before (fasting) and 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10h post-ingestion. Zeaxanthin concentration in the triacylglycerol-rich lipoprotein fraction of plasma was measured by HPLC. Results showed that triacylglycerol-rich lipoprotein zeaxanthin peaked at 6h post-ingestion for all formulations. Zeaxanthin bioavailability from the hot milk formulation was significantly higher (p<0·001) than from the others. Mean area under the curve (n 12) results were 9·73 (sem 2·45), 3·24 (sem 0·72) and 3·14 (sem 1·09) nmol×h/l for the hot milk, warm milk and hot water formulations, respectively. Results showed clearly that homogenisation of wolfberry in hot skimmed milk results in a formulation that has a 3-fold enhanced bioavailability of zeaxanthin compared with both the ‘classical’ hot water and warm skimmed milk treatment of the berries.