Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nucleotide sequence of the lecithinase operon of Listeria monocytogenes and possible role of lecithinase in cell-to-cell spread

The lecithinase gene of the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, plcB, was identified in a 5,648-bp DNA fragment which expressed lecithinase activity when cloned into Escherichia coli. This fragment is located immediately downstream of the previously identified gene mpl (prtA). It contains five open reading frames, named actA, plcB, and ORFX, -Y, and -Z, which, together with mpl, form an operon, since a 5.7-kb-long transcript originates from a promoter located upstream of mpl (J. Mengaud, C. Geoffroy, and P. Cossart, Infect. Immun. 59:1043-1049, 1991). A second promoter was detected in front of actA which encodes a putative membrane protein containing a region of internal repeats. plcB encodes the lecithinase, a predicted 289-amino-acid protein homologous to the phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipases C of Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens (alpha-toxin). plcB mutants produce only small plaques on fibroblast monolayers, and an electron microscopic analysis of infected macrophages suggests that lecithinase is involved in the lysis of the two-membrane vacuoles that surround the bacteria after cell-to-cell spread. On the opposite DNA strand, downstream of the operon, three more open reading frames, ldh, ORFA, and ORFB, were found. The deduced amino acid sequence of the first one is homologous to lactate dehydrogenases. Low-stringency Southern hybridization experiments suggest that these three open reading frames lie outside of the L. monocytogenes virulence region: mpl and actA were specific for L. monocytogenes, sequences hybridizing to plcB were detected in L. ivanovii and L. seeligeri, and sequences hybridizing to ORFX, -Y, and -Z were found in L. innocua. In contrast to this, sequences hybridizing to ldh or ORFB were detected in all Listeria species (including the nonpathogenic ones).
Halo antenna with cylindrical conductor for space of feed circuits

Slim and lightweight base station antennas are required in the next wireless communication systems to achieve low construction cost. Authors have investigated Halo antenna with parasitic element as a slim omni-directional horizontal-polarization antenna in past research. Halo antenna has symmetrical and cylindrical configuration and feed circuits should be inserted in the symmetrical plane to avoid impedance shift and pattern distortion. Thus Halo antenna has difficulties achieving high gain and beam tilt functionality because the feed circuits for high gain antennas and beam tilting antennas must be large and complex. In this paper, a cylindrical conductor for electrostatic shielding effects is inserted in Halo antenna, and the feed circuits are inserted in the cylindrical conductor without any effects on the antenna performance. The pattern distortion due to scattering current on the cylindrical conductor is canceled out by the symmetrical flow of scattering currents, thus, the cylindrical conductor is also inserted in Halo antenna without pattern distortion. The impedance and bandwidth of the Halo antenna depends on the size of cylindrical conductor. The numerical results, obtained by changing the size of cylindrical conductor, verified more than 1/3 space in Halo antenna can be assigned for feed circuits.
Global Water Scarcity in Relation to the International Energy Trade of Thailand

It is predicted that energy requirements in developing countries will increase global water consumption as a result of implementation of new power generation systems, and to population growth of the middle classes. Thus, it is anticipated that increased regional energy consumption will likely increase global water scarcity as a result of the consequent international energy trade. The degree of impact, however, depends on the degree of water scarcity in the energy‐export regions. Therefore, the impact on global water scarcity by the international energy trade of Thailand was evaluated, using virtual water flow, and considering water scarcity. First, the amount of natural gas, crude oil, coal, and electricity imported and exported by each country was determined from energy and trading statistics. Concurrently, a database of water withdrawn per unit of energy production was built using commodity and water scarcity indices by country. Next, standard, scarcity‐weighted, and region‐based scarcity‐weighted virtual water flows were calculated using a bottom‐up approach. From this, the net virtual water import (NVWI) was determined to be 1,267 to 7,353 million cubic meters (m3), whereas the stress‐weighted and region‐based stress‐weighted NVWIs were determined to be from −2 to 1,820, and −4 to 3,696 million m3, respectively, over the past 20 years. It was found that, although the amount of virtual water import for the power generation was significant, imported crude oil was the greatest contributor to global water scarcity. Finally, the implications of these results for policy to prevent global water scarcity are considered, with discussion of the usability and uncertainty, of the water scarcity index.
Finite Sample Biases in Tests of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis in the Bond Market

Empirical rejections of the rational expectations hypothesis (REH) in the bond market have attracted much attention. In this paper we demonstrate that if agents have information about next period's short yield in addition to that contained in the current short yield, a small sample bias arises in conventional regression tests of the REH. We show that this bias may serve to significantly weaken the rejection of the REH that has been reported in the literature.
A two‐year randomized controlled trial of progressive resistance exercise for Parkinson's disease

The effects of progressive resistance exercise (PRE) on the motor signs of Parkinson's disease have not been studied in controlled trials. The objective of the current trial was to compare 6‐, 12‐, 18‐, and 24‐month outcomes of patients with Parkinson's disease who received PRE with a stretching, balance, and strengthening exercise program. The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial between September 2007 and July 2011. Pairs of patients matched by sex and off‐medication scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, motor subscale (UPDRS‐III), were randomly assigned to the interventions with a 1:1 allocation ratio. The PRE group performed a weight‐lifting program. The modified fitness counts (mFC) group performed a stretching, balance, and strengthening exercise program. Patients exercised 2 days per week for 24 months at a gym. A personal trainer directed both weekly sessions for the first 6 months and 1 weekly session after 6 months. The primary outcome was the off‐medication UPDRS‐III score. Patients were followed for 24 months at 6‐month intervals. Of 51 patients, 20 in the PRE group and 18 in the mFC group completed the trial. At 24 months, the mean off‐medication UPDRS‐III score decreased more with PRE than with mFC (mean difference, −7.3 points; 95% confidence interval, −11.3 to −3.6; P<0.001). The PRE group had 10 adverse events, and the mFC group had 7 adverse events. PRE demonstrated a statistically and clinically significant reduction in UPDRS‐III scores compared with mFC and is recommended as a useful adjunct therapy to improve Parkinsonian motor signs. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society
Cardiac autonomic dysfunction is associated with white matter lesions in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND Cardiac autonomic dysfunction has been associated with cognitive impairment, but the underlying pathogenesis is complex and cerebral white matter lesions (WMLs) might be implicated. METHODS Time and frequency heart rate variability (HRV) and visual rating of WMLs were carried out in 42 patients with mild cognitive impairment. RESULTS After adjustment for relevant demographic and clinical characteristics, including left ventricular mass, reduced HRV indices of parasympathetic (root mean square of successive difference of RR intervals, RMSSD) and sympathetic modulation (low-frequency [LF] power) were associated with increased WML score (RMSSD: B -0.30, 95% CI -0.52 to -0.08, p = .01; LF: B -0.24, 95% CI -0.46 to -0.02, p = .05). In a multiple-adjusted model, RMSSD was the major independent predictor of WMLs (B -0.35, 95% CI -0.57 to -0.13, p = .002). CONCLUSION The evidence for an independent association of cardiac autonomic dysfunction with WMLs might suggest its role in the pathogenesis of WMLs.
Characteristics of as-grown MgB/sub 2/ thin films made by sputtering

We describe the characteristics of MgB/sub 2/ thin films, which were deposited by sputtering. Under optimized conditions, the critical temperature was 29 K and the surface roughness of the films was 10 nm. The 1-micrometer-wide, 47.3-centimeter-long meander lines fabricated using the films had almost the same critical temperature and resistivity as of the MgB/sub 2/ films. However, magnetic susceptibility data showed that there was a relatively broad (approximately 8 K) superconductivity transition, which indicates that the films had nonuniformity in the thickness direction. From the magnetic-field dependence of the resistivity- temperature curve, H/sub C2/(0) was estimated to be 12 T in the ab-axis direction and 10 T in the c-axis direction. We also estimated that the coherent length was 4.8 nm in the c-axis direction and 5.7 nm in the ab-axis direction. The anisotropy value was 1.2, which is smaller than the values reported elsewhere. From the magnetic susceptibility measurements, the critical current density was estimated to be 1.7/spl times/10/sup 6/ A/cm/sup 2/.
Cytomegalovirus vaccines and methods of production (WO20009049138): the emerging recognition of the importance of virus neutralization at the epithelial/endothelial interface

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital viral infection in the developed world. Approximately 40,000 congenitally infected infants are born in the US each year. Congenital CMV infection is responsible for a wide range of neurodevelopmental disabilities and is the most common infectious cause of hearing loss in children. The significant public health impact of congenital CMV has led the Institute of Medicine to rank development of a CMV vaccine as a top priority. Vaccine development has been ongoing; however, there is no licensed CMV vaccine currently available. Before vaccines can be optimized, a better understanding of how CMV infects the host is required. Recently, it has been demonstrated that CMV enters epithelial and endothelial cells by different pathways than those used for entry into fibroblasts, and that a recently described complex of CMV proteins, the gH/gL/UL128/130/131 complex, is essential for this process to occur. This discovery has allowed identification of a novel, heretofore unexplored, potential CMV vaccine targets, and provides the basis for the patent, ‘Cytomegalovirus Vaccines and Methods of Production – WO2009049138. ’ In this patent evaluation, the basis for this patent is reviewed. The potential application of this discovery for future CMV vaccine design is discussed.
Service failure diagnosis in service function chain

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a powerful emerging technique with widespread applicability. It provides Network Functions (NFs) through software virtualization techniques that decouple software and hardware. Some connected network functions constitute a service function chain (SFC). Therefore, the deployment of SFCs is much agile and simple. However, this leads to more service failure. The service failure includes service availability failure and service quality degradation. Aiming at the problem that the existing service function chain detection methods have high detection cost and cannot locate the failure accurately. This paper presents a method based on minimum detection cost. The method consists of failure detection and failure localization. In failure detection, we calculate detection paths according to the topology of network functions to avoid duplicate probing of links between network functions. In failure localization, we locate service availability failure and service quality degradation respectively and add timestamp fields to network service header to analyze locations of service quality degradation. Experiments show that the method reduces active detection cost and improves the recall and false-positive of service failure localization.
Succession of Bacterial Communities in a Seasonally Stratified Lake with an Anoxic and Sulfidic Hypolimnion

Although bacteria play key roles in aquatic food webs and biogeochemical cycles, information on the seasonal succession of bacterial communities in lakes is still far from complete. Here, we report results of an integrative study on the successional trajectories of bacterial communities in a seasonally stratified lake with an anoxic hypolimnion. The bacterial community composition of epilimnion, metalimnion, and hypolimnion diverged during summer stratification and converged when the lake was mixed. In contrast, bacterial communities in the sediment remained relatively stable over the year. Phototrophic Cyanobacteria and heterotrophic Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Planktomycetes were abundant in the aerobic epilimnion, Gammaproteobacteria (mainly Chromatiaceae) dominated in the metalimnion, and Chlorobi, Betaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Firmicutes were abundant in the anoxic sulfidic hypolimnion. Anoxic but nonsulfidic conditions expanded to the surface layer during fall turnover, when the epilimnion, metalimnion and upper hypolimnion mixed. During this period, phototrophic sulfur bacteria (Chromatiaceae and Chlorobi) disappeared, Polynucleobacter (Betaproteobacteria) and Methylobacter (Gammaproteobacteria) spread out from the former meta- and hypolimnion to the surface layer, and Epsilonproteobacteria dominated in the bottom water layer. Cyanobacteria and Planktomycetes regained dominance in early spring, after the oxygen concentration was restored by winter mixing. In total, these results show large spatio-temporal changes in bacterial community composition, especially during transitions from oxic to anoxic and from sulfidic to nonsulfidic conditions.
Vertical specialization in the EU and the causality of trade

ABSTRACT We use a novel classification scheme to identify three stages of production in the manufacturing sector: parts, components and final goods. In particular, we offer evidence on the revealed comparative advantage of the EU-27 countries concerning the three vertically separated stages of production. Moreover, we investigate whether, and if so how, imports of parts, and components can work as a predictor for the exports of final goods. We find that countries specialize at different stages of production, and that components are Granger causal for the export of final goods in many countries with a lag of 3 months.
DETERMINANTS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED FAST GROWING ENTERPRISES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

The purpose of this paper is to explore the main determinants of growth in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in central and eastern Europe. The important role played by SMEs in the economic development of central and eastern European (CEE) countries has attracted the recent attention of academics and policymakers but remains relatively unexplored. Empirical research has suggested that firm growth is determined not only by the traditional characteristics of size and age but also by other firm-specific factors such as indebtedness, internal financing, future growth opportunities, process and product innovation, and organisational changes. Although growth in manufacturing and service SMEs in transition economies is well explained by the traditional firm characteristics of size and age, there is no empirical evidence concerning what other specific factors may be associated with SME growth and performance in these countries. Using a panel dataset of 560 fast growing small and medium enterprises from six transition economies we find that firm size when measured by firm total assets can explain to a large extent the growth in SMEs in these countries. When size is proxied by a firm’s number of employees the observed effect is marginal. Firm specific characteristics such as leverage, current liquidity, future growth opportunities, internally generated funds, and factor productivity are found to be important factors in determining a firm’s growth and performance. Age and ownership do not seem to be able to explain firm growth. The results of our empirical study have also some policy implications: we argue that governments in transition economies need to pay an increased attention to small and medium sized enterprises and try to create a business environment that will be beneficial for SME development.
The Effect of Chorioamnionitis on the Developmental Outcome of Preterm Infants at One Year

This report investigates the effect of chorioamnionitis on infant mental and psychomotor development at one year through the prospective study of 698 preterm pregnancies complicated by premature rupture of membranes and managed expectantly without antenatal corticosteroids or tocolytic agents. Ninety-two mothers (13%) developed chorioamnionitis, resulting in a statistically significant increase in neonatal mortality (25 versus 6%), respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) (62 versus 35%), intraventricular hemorrhage (56 versus 22%), and sepsis (28 versus 11%). A multidisciplinary team examined 43 surviving infants at corrected one year of life and measured their mental and psychomotor development by the Bayley scales. No statistically significant difference in outcomes was observed when their development was compared with that of a control group matched for birth weight, gestational age, severity of intraventricular hemorrhage, and severity of RDS.
a change in energy intensity: test of relationship between energy intensity and income in iran

In this paper we study the long- term trend of energy intensity for Iran. We use a quadratic function of the logarithm of income to take account of the change in trend of energy intensity and test the non-monotonic relationship between energy intensity and income during 1967- 2002. We find that the long-run coefficient on squared income is negative and significant, indicating a change in trend of energy intensity
High performance web applications for secure system monitoring and control

As experimental collaborations become larger and more international, there is a growing need for webbased tools that can allow collaborators to securely and reliably monitor and control their respective systems both on-site and remotely from their home institutes. Increased adoption of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets also opens new possibilities for system monitoring, including push technologies to send notifications about important events or error conditions. We present a system based on state-of-the-art clients implemented in HTML5. These thin clients have high performance capacities due to modern technologies like webworkers for multithreading and websockets, a protocol with extremely small overhead. The client is adaptable to different platforms and requires no installation whatsoever. The client can provide highly complex functionality and offers a large number of controls and information channels through a simple-to-use gui, while major computation is handled by middleware. Beyond basic controls such as disabling/masking problem nodes or restarting processes, our system is also capable of processing data volumes and presenting live graphs and histograms on the client. If necessary, users can be alerted with text messages (sms) for rapid reaction to special events or error conditions. In these messages a uri is included that brings up the client in a browser with the data and the controls necessary to begin dealing with the event. All transactions such as control signals are handled reliably through use of enterprise integration patterns. Security is based on industrial strength proven protocols including SSL. We share our experiences implementing and testing these new tools in realistic experimental environments, including projects in which our group is involved.
Exposure related mutagens in urine of rubber workers associated with inhalable particulate and dermal exposure

Aims: To determine the relation of the inhalation and dermal exposure routes and mutagenic activity in the urine of rubber workers (n = 105). Methods: Mutagenic activity of ambient total suspended particulate matter (TSPM), surface contamination wipes, and Sunday and weekday urine samples was assessed with S typhimurium YG1041 in the presence of a metabolic activation system. Each subject was grouped into one of two exposure categories for dermal exposure (high (≥25 revertants/cm2), low (<25 revertants/cm2)) based on the mutagenic activity detected on likely skin contact surfaces and into two airborne mutagenic exposure categories (high (≥210 revertants/m3), low (<210 revertants/m3)). The potential influence of skin aberrations and acetylation status (NAT2) on urinary mutagenicity levels was also evaluated. Results: A non-significant increase of +1605 revertants/g creatinine in urinary mutagenicity during the workweek relative to levels observed on Sunday was observed for the total population. Subsequent multivariate regression analyses, with the subjects’ weekday urinary mutagenicity levels as the dependent variable, revealed associations with environmental and mainstream tobacco smoke exposure, with the level of mutagenic contamination on surfaces with which the subjects had likely contact, with the subjects’ inhalable particulate exposure level, with observed mild skin aberrations, and when the subjects had a slow acetylation phenotype. Similar associations, although weaker were observed with Sunday urinary mutagenicity levels as well, except for the association with slow acetylation phenotype. Based on measured exposure levels it could be estimated that a high potential for exposure to surface contamination with mutagenic activity increased weekday urinary mutagenicity by about 62% when compared to low exposed workers, while high inhalable particulate exposure levels increased weekday urinary mutagenicity levels by about 21%. Subjects with mild skin aberrations had an additional, non-significant, increase in weekday urinary mutagenic activity compared to subjects without any skin aberrations. Discussion: Results suggest that the dermal exposure route may contribute more to the level of genotoxic compounds in urine of rubber workers than the inhalation route. Although the study was limited in size, the results warrant further investigation in the importance of and ways to effectively control the dermal exposure route in the rubber industry.