Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcript cleavage factors GreA and GreB act as transient catalytic components of RNA polymerase

Prokaryotic transcription elongation factors GreA and GreB stimulate intrinsic nucleolytic activity of RNA polymerase (RNAP). The proposed biological role of Gre‐induced RNA hydrolysis includes transcription proofreading, suppression of transcriptional pausing and arrest, and facilitation of RNAP transition from transcription initiation to transcription elongation. Using an array of biochemical and molecular genetic methods, we mapped the interaction interface between Gre and RNAP and identified the key residues in Gre responsible for induction of nucleolytic activity in RNAP. We propose a structural model in which the C‐terminal globular domain of Gre binds near the opening of the RNAP secondary channel, the N‐terminal coiled‐coil domain (NTD) protrudes inside the RNAP channel, and the tip of the NTD is brought to the immediate vicinity of RNAP catalytic center. Two conserved acidic residues D41 and E44 located at the tip of the NTD assist RNAP by coordinating the Mg2+ ion and water molecule required for catalysis of RNA hydrolysis. If so, Gre would be the first transcription factor known to directly participate in the catalytic act of RNAP.
Robust model predictive control of a wind turbine

In this work the problem of robust model predictive control (robust MPC) of a wind turbine in the full load region is considered. A minimax robust MPC approach is used to tackle the problem. Nonlinear dynamics of the wind turbine are derived by combining blade element momentum (BEM) theory and first principle modeling of the turbine flexible structure. Thereafter the nonlinear model is linearized using Taylor series expansion around system operating points. Operating points are determined by effective wind speed and an extended Kalman filter (EKF) is employed to estimate this. In addition, a new sensor is introduced in the EKF to give faster estimations. Wind speed estimation error is used to assess uncertainties in the linearized model. Significant uncertainties are considered to be in the gain of the system (B matrix of the state space model). Therefore this special structure of the uncertain system is employed and a norm-bounded uncertainty model is used to formulate a minimax model predictive control. The resulting optimization problem is simplified by semidefinite relaxation and the controller obtained is applied on a full complexity, high fidelity wind turbine model. Finally simulation results are presented. First a comparison between PI and robust MPC is given. Afterwards simulations are done for a realization of turbulent wind with uniform profile based on the IEC standard.
Pressure‐induced Isomerization of Retinal on Bacteriorhodopsin as Disclosed by Fast Magic Angle Spinning NMR †

Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a retinal protein in purple membrane of Halobacterium salinarum, which functions as a light‐driven proton pump. We have detected pressure‐induced isomerization of retinal in bR by analyzing 15N cross polarization‐magic angle spinning (CP‐MAS) NMR spectra of [ζ‐15N]Lys‐labeled bR. In the 15N‐NMR spectra, both all‐trans and 13‐cis retinal configurations have been observed in the Lys Nζ in protonated Schiff base at 148.0 and 155.0 ppm, respectively, at the MAS frequency of 4 kHz in the dark. When the MAS frequency was increased up to 12 kHz corresponding to the sample pressure of 63 bar, the 15N‐NMR signals of [ζ‐15N]Lys in Schiff base of retinal were broadened. On the other hand, other [ζ‐15N]Lys did not show broadening. Subsequently, the increased signal intensity of [ζ‐15N]Lys in Schiff base of 13‐cis retinal at 155.0 ppm was observed when the MAS frequency was decreased from 12 to 4 kHz. These results showed that the equilibrium constant of [all‐trans‐bR]/[13‐cis‐bR] in retinal decreased by the pressure of 63 bar. It was also revealed that the structural changes induced by the pressure occurred in the vicinity of retinal. Therefore, microscopically, hydrogen‐bond network around retinal would be disrupted or distorted by a constantly applied pressure. It is, therefore, clearly demonstrated that increased pressure induced by fast MAS frequencies generated isomerization of retinal from all‐trans to 13‐cis state in the membrane protein bR.
Clinical profile of neurobrucellosis--a report on 12 cases from Bikaner (north-west India).

OBJECTIVE To study the spectrum of neurobrucellosis in a prospective study at Bikaner which is supposed to be uncommon in India. METHOD This study was done on admitted patients of brucellosis from June 1996 to June 1999 in whom the diagnosis was done by history of exposure to animals, fever and arthralgia and demonstration of brucella antibody titres in serum 1:160. CSF examination was done in all the patients. All cases were treated by combination of doxycycline 100 mg twice daily, rifampicin 900 mg daily for 6-8 weeks and injection streptomycin 0.75 to 1 gm i.m. per day for initial 14 days. Detailed neurological examination and antibody titres of serum and CSF again measured at the end of treatment. RESULTS Twelve out of 92 patients revealed evidence of neurobrucellosis in which four cases were of meningoencephalitis, two cases of myelitis leading to spastic paraparesis, five cases of polyradiculoneuropathy and one case of polyneuroradiculomyeloencephalopathy. The treatment regimen used was associated with a high cure rate and significant reduction in antibody titres in serum and CSF. CONCLUSION Neurobrucellosis is an uncommon but serious manifestation affecting central and peripheral nervous system. The clinical profile of the disease mimicks closely to commonly seen neurological infective diseases like tubercular meningitis, viral encephalitis, aseptic meningitis, cerebral malaria and viral encephalopathy. Serum and CSF testing for brucella antibody titre is an important test for the diagnosis. Blood culture is not an ideal test for neurobrucellosis because of low yield and longer time required for the diagnosis. High degree of suspicion is prudent for the diagnosis. High degree of cure rate can be achieved by treatment with present regimen in a disease which is otherwise having high mortality and morbidity.
Oligodendrocytes and myelin sheaths in normal, quaking and shiverer brains are enriched in iron

Early studies employing iron histochemical techniques found a spatially restricted distribution of oli‐godendrocytes and myelin enriched in iron. In particular, Oligodendrocytes and myelin positively stained for iron were found in sparsely myelinated brain regions but not in densely myelinated tracts. Subsequent studies modified the iron histochemical technique and demonstrated that Oligodendrocytes and myelin were stained in densely myelinated brain regions but the staining occurred in patches rather than uniformly throughout densely myelinated tracts. This study further modified the iron histochemistry technique to establish that Oligodendrocytes and myelin are enriched in iron throughout densely myelinated tracts. This finding supports biochemical studies that detected high levels of iron in white matter (Hallgren and Sourander, J Neurochem 3:41–51, 1958) and myelin fractions of brain homogenates (Rajan et al., Life Sci 18:423–432, 1976). Thus, this histochemical study and earlier biochemical studies indicate that white matter is a major site of iron concentration within the brain. The present study also examined the distribution of iron in Oligodendrocytes and myelin from the dysmyelinating mutant mice quaking and shiverer. Results from these studies demonstrate that Oligodendrocytes and myelin are enriched in iron in both quaking and shiverer brains. An unexpected finding was an intense staining of oval structures within the oligodendrocyte cytoplasm. This result indicates a concentration of iron in these structures and may be important for understanding how high concentrations of iron are processed by Oligodendrocytes.
A Regional Delphi Study of the Perceptions of NVATA, NASAE, and AAAE Members on Critical Issues Facing Secondary Agricultural Education Programs.

This study utilized the expertise of secondary agriculture teachers, state supervisors and agricultrue teacher educators to identify critical issues that secondary agricultural education programs will face over the next five years . This study was conducted using a four stage Delphi technique . The population for the surveys included secondary agriculture teachers, state supervisors and teacher educators throughout the Western Region of the American Association for Agricultral Education (AAAE). The national officers of AAAE Aof AAA ,NASAE and NVA TA were also included in the study . The total number of teachers, supervisors and teacher educators included in the study was 82 . The respondents to survey one listed over 400 critical issues. The top 20 categories were then used in the second survey. Only two categories: funding focal agricultural educationprograms and recruitment and retention of secondary agriculture teachers were ranked as extremely important issues in survey two . In surveys three and four respondents detennined their level of agreement with specific critical issues . An AN0 VA found that there was a significant difference in the way teacher educators and state supervisors ranked the importance of the reduction in state supervisors. Teacher educators indicated the issue was very imortant while state supervisors indicated it was extremely important.
Agenda-Setting Dynamics at the EU Level: The Case of the EU Cultural Policy

Abstract A new discourse in which culture is increasingly integrated into a policy agenda dealing with innovation policy, and the fostering of growth and economic competitiveness more generally, is currently gaining ground at the EU level. Surprisingly, it is the Directorate-General for Culture, Youth and Education (DG Culture) of the European Commission that has initiated and promoted this policy agenda in an attempt to gain control over policy. The new agenda differs radically from the programmatic discourses formerly promoted by DG Culture, which laid the emphasis on the value of culture for its own sake. By identifying the factors that enabled a small, hardly influential DG to reframe culture as a key factor of economic competitiveness and to impose this programmatic solution both within the Commission and at the intergovernmental level, this article sheds light on the key dynamics of agenda-setting in the EU institutional context. It focuses, essentially, on the nature of the discourse itself, the specificities of conflict expansion strategies at the EU level and the characteristics of the EU political and institutional context.
Bone mineral density and nutritional status in children with chronic inflammatory bowel disease

Background—Osteoporosis has been reported in adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Aims—To evaluate bone mineral density (BMD), nutritional status, and determinants of BMD in children with inflammatory bowel disease. Patients—Fifty five patients (34 boys and 21 girls, age range 4–18) were studied; 22 had Crohn’s disease and 33 ulcerative colitis. Methods—Lumbar spine and total body BMD, and body composition were assessed by dual energy x ray absorptiometry (DXA). Results were expressed as standard deviation scores (SDS). Lean body mass was also assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Yearly measurements during two years were performed in 21 patients. Results—The mean SDS of lumbar spine BMD and total body BMD were significantly lower than normal (−0.75 and −0.95, both p<0.001). Height SDS and body mass index SDS were also decreased. The decrease in BMD SDS could not be explained by delay in bone maturation. The cumulative dose of prednisolone correlated negatively with lumbar spine BMD SDS (r=−0.32, p<0.02). Body mass index SDS correlated positively with total body BMD SDS (r=0.36, p<0.02). Patients with Crohn’s disease had significantly lower lumbar spine and total body BMD SDS than patients with ulcerative colitis, even after adjustment for cumulative dose of prednisolone. In the longitudinal data cumulative dose of prednisolone between the measurements correlated negatively with the change in lumbar spine and total body BMD SDS. Lean tissue mass measured by DXA had a strong correlation with lean body mass measured by BIA (r=0.98). Conclusions—Children with inflammatory bowel disease have a decreased BMD. Children with Crohn’s disease have a higher risk of developing osteopaenia than children with ulcerative colitis. Corticosteroid therapy and nutritional status are important determinants of BMD in these patients.
Learning performance of Fisher Linear Discriminant based on Markov sampling

Fisher Linear Discriminant (FLD) is a well-known method for dimensionality reduction and classification that projects high-dimensional data onto a low-dimensional space where the data achieves maximum class separability. To improve the learning performance of FLD algorithm, in this paper we introduce Markov sampling algorithm to generate uniformly ergodic Markov chain samples from a given i.i. d. data of finite size by following the enlightening idea from MCMC methods. Through simulation studies and numerical studies on benchmark repository using FLD algorithm, we found that FLD algorithm based on uniformly ergodic Markov samples generated by the markov sampling algorithm introduced in this paper can provide smaller mean square error compared to the i.i. d. sampling from the same data.
Feature matching method with multigeometric constraints

Abstract. Feature correspondence is one of the essential difficulties in image processing, given that it is applied within a wide range in computer vision. Even though it has been studied for many years, feature correspondence is still far from being ideal. This paper proposes a multigeometric-constraint algorithm for finding correspondences between two sets of features. It does so by considering interior angles and edge lengths of triangles formed by third-order tuples of points. Multigeometric-constraints are formulated using matrices representing triangle similarities. The experimental evaluation showed that the multigeometric-constraint algorithm can significantly improve the matching precision and is robust to most geometric and photometric transformations including rotation, scale change, blur, viewpoint change, and JPEG compression as well as illumination change. The multigeometric-constraint algorithm was applied to object recognition which includes extraprocessing and affine transformation. The results showed that this approach works well for this recognition.
Is vitamin supplementation appropriate in the healthy old?

Purpose of review Vitamin supplements are used by large numbers of older adults. Although vitamins serve several functions in the body, the benefits or harm of routine supplementation are far from clear. Data from studies over the last decade are reviewed to enable an understanding. Recent findings Summarized data from studies conducted over the last few years, pertinent to the use of vitamins, as multivitamin combinations and as individual vitamins specifically A, D, E, C, and the B group, are presented. This review targets the benefits and harm of multivitamins when used to lower the risk of cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, visual disorders (e.g., cataracts and age-related macular degeneration), and bone disease. The effects of vitamins on total mortality are discussed. In addition, isolated or multiple vitamin deficiencies, their predisposing settings and manifestations from mild-to-life-threatening illness are discussed. Summary Data from studies demonstrate considerable variations, most confirming little to no benefit following supplementation in healthy adults. However, clear roles exist for vitamin supplementation in states of deficiency and in subgroups of older adults at high risk for deficiency of specific or multiple vitamins. In these settings, vitamin supplements help prevent or correct deficiency and related manifestations.
Acute cocaine alters oxytocin levels in the medial preoptic area and amygdala in lactating rat dams: implications for cocaine-induced changes in maternal behavior and maternal aggression

Acute cocaine administration has been correlated with disruptions in the onset and maintenance of maternal behavior as well as decreases in maternal aggressive behavior in rat dams. A growing body of evidence suggests that cocaine may alter oxytocin levels leading to impairments in maternal behavior and aggression. The current study assessed whether acute cocaine injections alter oxytocin (OT) levels in the medial preoptic area (MPOA), ventral tegmental area (VTA), amygdala (AMY), and hippocampus (HIP) on postpartum day (PPD) 1 or PPD 6. On PPD 1, 30 mg/kg cocaine reduced OT levels by approximately 26.9% (picograms/milligram) in the MPOA (t (18) = 3.44, P<. 01) compared to saline. On PPD 6, 30 mg/kg cocaine significantly increased OT levels by approximately 20.9% (picograms/brain area) in the AMY (F (2,25) = 3.44, P=. 05) relative to saline. These findings suggest that acute cocaine may disrupt maternal behavior and maternal aggression at least in part through its action on the oxytocinergic system.
Networks as Policy Instruments for Innovation

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this article is to compare the effectiveness of facilitated networks to other policy instruments for agricultural innovation. Design/ methodology/ approach: In an exploratory study of the Dutch agricultural policy context, we conducted semi-structured interviews with ten experts on networks and innovation. Policy alternatives to networks included research funding, innovation experiments, knowledge vouchers for entrepreneurs, practice networks, competitions for awards/ prizes, innovation subsidies for individual entrepreneurs, legal exceptions, legislation and fiscalisation. Findings: In early phases of the innovation process, facilitated networks were seen as more effective and cost-efficient than the other instruments. This was especially the case for system transformation. However, other instruments can have comparable performance for innovation when they result in sufficient network formation, for instance when they require that target groups build coalitions and other forms of networks. Networks were also seen as effective for system optimisation, but not more cost-efficient than other effective instruments. Practical implications: Past policy experiences with networks enable moving beyond the generic term of ‘(facilitated) network’ to develop more advanced instruments for specific types and phases of innovation. Furthermore, the results suggest that facilitated networks may be a cost-effective alternative to the national extension services of old. Originality/value: Many studies have shown the importance of networks for agricultural innovation. Furthermore, networks offer governments new opportunities to stimulate agricultural innovation. However, less is known about the effectiveness of networks as a policy instrument.
Making and Keeping Peace

Recent efforts to explain why some peace agreements last while others fail have focused on the strength of the agreement itself. Maintaining peace, even if both belligerents want peace, can be difficult if there are temptations to defect or there are reasons to fear that one may be played for the sucker. Strong agreements that can increase the costs of defection, enhance monitoring, or reward cooperation help to solve this enforcement dilemma and generally increase the former belligerents' incentives to remain at peace. Although we agree that such carrots and sticks can facilitate cooperation, we argue in this article that such measures will often be inadequate if the belligerents themselves are no longer committed to keeping the peace. If the belligerents believe that a renewed war can lead to better terms, peace will be precarious. We demonstrate that getting (and keeping) the terms right may be more important than any carrots and sticks incorporated into the document to enforce those terms. In particular, we show that “unnatural” ceasefires that come about as a consequence of third-party pressure are significantly more likely to fail. We also show that ceasefires negotiated after wars with consistent battle outcomes are more likely to last than those where the “right” terms of settlement are less apparent.We would like to thank Virginia Page Fortna, Dani Reiter, Nicholas Sambanis, and the anonymous reviewers and editors of International Organization for their many suggestions and insightful comments on previous versions of this article.
Baseball success and the structure of salaries.

The purpose of this research is to examine some competing assumptions regarding the hiring behaviour of major league baseball clubs. One hypothesis is that owners and general managers of teams enter the free agent market with a view to attracting the best talent available in order to win games. We might refer to this as the 'win games' strategy. A potentially alternative view is that they compete in this market for marquee players who will attract paying customers to the ball park. We can refer to this as the 'fannies-in-the-seats', or revenue, strategy. While these hypotheses are not necessarily inconsistent, we can imagine that for some teams, at some times, they are alternative approaches to hiring behaviour. A team committed to the 'win games' strategy may attempt to spread its resources in order to hire as many good players as possible without necessarily hiring elite players. A team committed to the revenue strategy may be content to surround a superstar with second rate talent. In order to test these hypotheses we intend to specify estimable models that relate, alternatively, team attendance, winning percentage and division, pennant and world championships to, among other relevant explanatory variables, its salary structure.
Hausdorff Distance Based Non-rigid Image Registration Using Feature Points

A non-rigid feature registration method using the Hausdorff distance is presented in this paper. Based on B-splines, the proposed method is able to handle elastic deformations between the images to be registered. Since no correspondence needs to be established between two point sets, the method is robust to outliers. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated and validated in two image registration experiments. While the results are somewhat preliminary, they clearly demonstrate the applicability of our method to real world tasks involving feature-based elastic registration
Multi-Antenna UHF RFID Reader Utilizing Stimulated Rate Tolerance

One of the main potentials for improved bulk reading speed in UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) systems is collision recovery, i.e., the recovery of signal collisions on the channel caused by unwanted simultaneous replies of the RFID tags. State-of-the-art collision recovery methods typically rely on quasi perfect channel state information (CSI), which is difficult to achieve using existing UHF RFID standards. In addition, these methods neglect the rate tolerance, i.e., the unknown bit-rate of the tag replies. In this paper, we will show that this rate tolerance can be used for improving the performance of RFID readers. We also show that we can further improve the performance if we furthermore artificially stimulate this rate tolerance. Using our approach we also do not face the difficulty of unknown CSI. Our new approach is compatible with the existing EPCglobal Class-1 Gen-2 RFID standard. Simulation results indicate that the new approach is able to reduce the time for reading a bulk by 8% compared to a maximum likelihood receiver. Using additional rate tolerance stimulation, this gain increases up to 25%. Furthermore, we can easily combine our approach with multiple antennas for improved performance, without any significant effect on the complexity of our decoding algorithms.