Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solution Structure of Escherichia coli FeoA and Its Potential Role in Bacterial Ferrous Iron Transport

ABSTRACT Iron is an indispensable nutrient for most organisms. Ferric iron (Fe3+) predominates under aerobic conditions, while during oxygen limitation ferrous (Fe2+) iron is usually present. The Feo system is a bacterial ferrous iron transport system first discovered in Escherichia coli K-12. It consists of three genes, feoA, feoB, and feoC (yhgG). FeoB is thought to be the main transmembrane transporter while FeoC is considered to be a transcriptional regulator. Using multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we have determined the solution structure of E. coli FeoA. The structure of FeoA reveals a Src-homology 3 (SH3)-like fold. The structure is composed of a β-barrel with two α-helices where one helix is positioned over the barrel. In comparison to the standard eukaryotic SH3 fold, FeoA has two additional α-helices. FeoA was further characterized by heteronuclear NMR dynamics measurements, which suggest that it is a monomeric, stable globular protein. Model-free analysis of the NMR relaxation results indicates that a slow conformational dynamic process is occurring in β-strand 4 that may be important for function. 31P NMR-based GTPase activity measurements with the N-terminal domain of FeoB (NFeoB) indicate a higher GTP hydrolysis rate in the presence of potassium than with sodium. Further enzymatic assays with NFeoB suggest that FeoA may not act as a GTPase-activating protein as previously proposed. These findings, together with bioinformatics and structural analyses, suggest that FeoA may have a different role, possibly interacting with the cytoplasmic domain of the highly conserved core portion of the FeoB transmembrane region.
Cost Management Research

ABSTRACT The traditional view of cost behavior assumes a simple mechanistic relation between cost drivers and costs. In contrast, contemporary cost management research recognizes that costs are caused by managers' operating decisions subject to various constraints, incentives, and psychological biases. This conceptual innovation opens up the “black box” of cost behavior and gives researchers a powerful new way to use observed cost behavior as a lens to study the determinants and the consequences of managers' operating decisions. Banker and Byzalov (2014) presented an overview of the economic theory of cost behavior and major estimation issues. The research literature on cost management has grown rapidly in the past few years and has enhanced the understanding of how managerial decisions influence observed costs. In this study, we provide a comprehensive review of recent findings and insights, with a particular emphasis on the implications of cost management for understanding issues in cost, managerial, an.
VMS: Traffic balancing based on virtual switches in datacenter networks

There have been many traffic balancing solutions for datacenter networks. All of them require modifications to the network fabric or/and virtual machines. In this paper, we propose Virtual Multi-channel Scatter (VMS), a new traffic balancing solution in datacenter networks. VMS works in the virtual switches between the network fabric and virtual machines. It can be deployed by datacenter operators at a relatively low cost without extra restrictions to virtual machine users. VMS scatters packets in one TCP flow to several different forwarding paths. It employs an adaptive path selection based on the virtual window size of different paths. We implemented VMS based on OVS. Our evaluation demonstrates that VMS improves traffic balancing very well, and the performance of VMS is approximate to MPTCP in almost all the cases, while only modifies virtual switches. Further, the overhead of VMS is tolerable.
Variation of skeletal biomarkers of biological aging in a Chuvashian population: A longitudinal study

Osseographic score (OSS) is a skeletal biomarker of biological aging, based on assessment of the hand's radiographic features. The aims of the present cross‐sectional and follow‐up study were: 1) to evaluate age‐related changes of OSS in a large Chuvashian cohort, and 2) to evaluate sex differences in age‐related changes of OSS. This study reports on intersexual differences in the pattern of skeletal aging. The most prominent difference was in the rate of skeletal change, measured as average OSS difference per year. However, no differences were found in the age at which the first skeletal change occurred. The mean values of OSS were higher in males than in females in decades 3–5 of life, but afterwards they reversed. In a follow‐up study, we found that sex differences regarding the rate of OSS change began in the fifth decade, but became statistically significant only in the sixth and seventh decades. Thereafter, the rate of OSS change again became virtually equal between sexes. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 19:74–81, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Environmental and natural resource implications of sustainable urban infrastructure systems

As cities grow, their environmental and natural resource footprints also tend to grow to keep up with the increasing demand on essential urban services such as passenger transportation, commercial space, and thermal comfort. The urban infrastructure systems, or socio-technical systems providing these services are the major conduits through which natural resources are consumed and environmental impacts are generated. This paper aims to gauge the potential reductions in environmental and resources footprints through urban transformation, including the deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems and strategic densification. Using hybrid life cycle assessment approach combined with scenarios, we analyzed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use, metal consumption and land use of selected socio-technical systems in 84 cities from the present to 2050. The socio-technical systems analyzed are: (1) bus rapid transit with electric buses, (2) green commercial buildings, and (3) district energy. We developed a baseline model for each city considering gross domestic product, population density, and climate conditions. Then, we overlaid three scenarios on top of the baseline model: (1) decarbonization of electricity, (2) aggressive deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems, and (3) strategic urban densification scenarios to each city and quantified their potentials in reducing the environmental and resource impacts of cities by 2050. The results show that, under the baseline scenario, the environmental and natural resource footprints of all 84 cities combined would increase 58%–116% by 2050. The resource-efficient scenario along with strategic densification, however, has the potential to curve down GHG emissions to 17% below the 2010 level in 2050. Such transformation can also limit the increase in all resource footprints to less than 23% relative to 2010. This analysis suggests that resource-efficient urban infrastructure and decarbonization of electricity coupled with strategic densification have a potential to mitigate resources and environmental footprints of growing cities.
What School Principals Need to Know about Libraries: Implications for Practice and Preparation.

Principals in K-12 education face increasingly complex responsibilities and must maximize student learning within the boundaries of available funding and staffing. Effective library programs have been correlated to higher test scores and can be a resource for principals to meet improvement goals. The purpose of this Delphi study was to describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed by K-12 administrators to direct effective school library programs. Across three expert profile groups, 23 panelists participated in three rounds of the Delphi process. A high level of consensus led to 44 statements of application for aspiring and practicing administrators. The four highest ranked items were statements of dispositions about the library program. Implications for administrators in preparation and practice are noted.
IgA Nephropathy: Analysis of the Natural History, Important Factors in the Progression of Renal Disease, and a Review of the Literature

To clarify the natural history of IgA nephropathy and to determine important factors in the progressive loss of renal function in affected patients, 121 patients with IgA nephropathy were followed for a median of 92 months. The cumulative probability of not progressing to end-stage renal failure (that is, of renal survival) was 0.87 at 15 years after the onset of 1st symptoms and 0.86 at 10 years after presentation and biopsy. Eight percent of patients progressed to end-stage renal failure, and 12% had a greater than 20% decline in renal function. A complete remission of disease activity was seen in 12% of patients, and the remaining 68% maintained stable renal function. When the final serum creatinine was expressed as a percentage of the initial serum creatinine for each patient and compared with all other variables, a number of factors were found to affect renal outcome. Of the presenting features, increased age, family history of nephritis, longer duration of symptoms, and presence of either nephrotic-range proteinuria or hypertension were all associated, by univariate analysis, with an adverse outcome, while a history of recurrent macroscopic hematuria and infection-associated exacerbations of disease activity were associated with a favorable outcome. Multivariate analysis showed that nephrotic-range proteinuria had an independent adverse effect. Of the initial laboratory findings, by univariate analysis, the number of hyaline casts, the degree of impairment of renal function, the degree of proteinuria, raised beta globulins on serum protein electrophoresis, and serum C4 concentrations were all associated with an adverse outcome, while the severity of initial hematuria and pyuria were associated with a favorable outcome. Renal biopsy findings associated with an adverse outcome by univariate analysis include, on light microscopy, the percentage of glomeruli with global sclerosis or segmental sclerosis or adhesions, the degrees of tubular atrophy or interstitial fibrosis, interstitial inflammation and blood-vessel thickening, and, on immunofluorescence, the intensity of IgA deposition. Multivariate analysis showed independent adverse effects on renal outcome of global glomerulosclerosis, segmental glomerulosclerosis or adhesions, and a combined mesangial and capillary wall deposition of IgM. Features at final assessment or during follow-up associated with an adverse outcome include, by univariate analysis, the number of hyaline casts, the degree of impairment of renal function, the degree of proteinuria, reduced serum IgG and IGM concentrations, reduced final IgA expressed as a percentage of the initial IgA concentration, transient decreases of creatinine clearance during follow-up of > 10% or > 20%, and persistence or development of hypertension. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Intraoperative Radiofrequency Ablation Using a 3D Navigation Tool for Treatment of Colorectal Liver Metastases

Background: Resection as the only potential cure for colorectal liver metastasis is limited by the size and the intrahepatic localization of lesions. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) may extend the limitations of surgery. Patients and Methods: 23 consecutive patients suffering from a total of 128 colorectal liver metastases were treated by resection and intraoperative RFA. All of these patients were irresectable by standard surgery due to volume and distribution of the lesions. 17 patients were treated by chemotherapy before RFA, with only 1 patient showing partial regression of liver metastases. In 12 lesions a new 3D navigation tool was used, that allows a virtual overlay of the RFA probe in real-time. Results: 60 metastases were resected, 68 metastases were treated by RFA. There was no mortality, and complications occurred in 4 patients only (1? temporary encephalopathy, 3x cholangitis). Local tumor control according to CT scan was achieved by RFA in 93% of lesions up to 30 mm diameter (n = 45) and in 44% of lesions larger than 30 mm (n = 23). All ablations using the navigation tool were successful. After a mean follow-up of 8 ± 5 months 12 patients are free of disease, 8 patients have either recurrent or new metastases, and 3 patients died of progressive disease. The estimated median survival time is 18 months (95% confidence interval 13–22 months). Conclusions: Intraoperative RFA of colorectal liver metastases in combination with hepatic resection is safe. Up to a lesion size of 30 mm a reliable treatment with RFA is possible. The navigation aid increases the reproducibility of the procedure.
Phosphorus Limits Tropical Rain Forest Litter Fauna

The stoichiometry of resources may explain bottom‐up regulation of higher trophic levels. We tested the effects of soil and litter nutrient stoichiometry on the invertebrate litter fauna of a Costa Rican tropical rain forest. Animal densities were estimated from 15 sites across a phosphorus gradient. The density of the invertebrate litter fauna varied considerably, and was strongly tied to soil and litter phosphorus concentrations. An increase in phosphorus concentrations corresponded with an equally proportionate increase in animal densities. Natural variation in nutrient levels can thus serve as a predictor of density in a highly diverse tropical animal community.
Robust Strategies and Counter-Strategies: From Superhuman to Optimal Play

Games have been used as a testbed for artificial intelligence research since the earliest conceptions of computing itself. The twin goals of defeating human professional players at games, and of solving games outright by creating an optimal computer agent, have helped to drive practical research in this field. Deep Blue defeating Kasparov at chess and Chinook solving the game of checkers serve as milestone events in the popular understanding of artificial intelligence. However, imperfect information games present new challenges and require new research. The Abstraction-Solving-Translation procedure for approaching such games involvesion-Solving-Translation procedure for approaching such games involves abstracting a game down to a tractable size, solving the abstract game to produce aing a game down to a tractable size, solving the abstract game to produce a strong abstract strategy, and translating its decisions into the real game as needed. Related challenges include principled evaluation of the resulting computer agents, and using opponent models to improve in-game performance against imperfect adversaries. The papers presented in this thesis encompass the complete end-to-end task of creating strong agents for extremely large games by using the AbstractionSolving-Translation procedure, and we present a body of research that has made contributions to each step of this task. We use the game of poker as a testbed domain to validate our research, and present two milestone accomplishments reached as a result: the first victory of a computer agent over human professionals in a meaningful poker match, and the first solution to any imperfect information game played competitively by humans.
Long‐term histologic and virologic outcomes of acute self‐limited hepatitis B

The long‐term impact of acute self‐limited hepatitis B on the liver is unknown. Fourteen patients were recalled at a median of 4.2 years (range, 1.8‐9.5 years) after the onset of acute hepatitis B. All showed clinical and serologic recovery with circulating hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance. Antibody to HBsAg (anti‐HBs) had developed in 12 patients. Nine underwent liver biopsies at a median of 7.2 years, and histologic findings were evaluated using Ishak scores. Serum samples and frozen liver tissue were subjected to real‐time detection polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to quantify the surface and X regions of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome and qualitative PCR to detect the covalently closed circular (ccc) HBV DNA replicative intermediate. Three patients had low levels of circulating HBV DNA up to 8.9 years after the onset, whereas both HBV DNA surface and X regions were found in the liver of all 9 patients examined, including 7 negative for serum HBV DNA. Liver viral loads assessed by the 2 regions showed a significant correlation (r = 0.946; P = .008), and all patients tested positive for ccc HBV DNA. Liver fibrosis and mild inflammation persisted in 8 patients. The fibrosis stage had relation to peak serum HBV DNA in the acute phase (P = .046) but not to liver viral loads in the late convalescent phase. In conclusion, occult HBV infection persists in the liver and is accompanied by abnormal liver histology for a decade after complete clinical recovery from acute self‐limited hepatitis B.
Impulsivity predicts problem gambling in low SES adolescent males.

AIMS This study investigated whether impulsivity measured in 12-14-year-olds could predict problem gambling in late adolescence, above and beyond other personality factors such as aggressiveness and anxiety. DESIGN A prospective-longitudinal design was used, thus overcoming limitations of past studies which used concurrent or retrospective designs. PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS The sample included 154 boys living in economically deprived neighborhoods. Impulsivity measures comprised self-reports, teacher ratings and laboratory tasks, and were administered during early adolescence. Gambling behavior was assessed at age 17 using a self-report measure. Early gambling behavior and socio-demographic information were also collected for control purposes. FINDINGS Results revealed that a self-report measure of impulsiveness and a card-sorting task significantly predicted problem gambling, even after controlling for socio-demographic variables, early gambling behavior and other personality variables such as aggressiveness and anxiety. Moreover, the predictive link held across all levels of aggressiveness and anxiety. Both impulsivity measures seemed to tap an inability to foresee negative consequences and an inability to stop responding despite unfavorable contingencies. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that disinhibited individuals with response modulation deficits are at risk for problem gambling, thus supporting the DSM-IV classification of pathological gambling as an impulse control deficit.
Virtual-ground sensing techniques for a 49-ns/200-MHz access time 1.8-V 256-Mb 2-bit-per-cell flash memory

Fast and accurate read operation in 1.8-V 2-bit-per-cell virtual-ground flash memories requires techniques to substantially reduce the read margin loss due to the side-leakage current and the complementary-bit disturbance. The read margin loss caused by the combination effect of these two disturbance mechanisms is serious enough to eliminate the read margin window, which is already small when the power supply voltage is about 1.8 V and when a memory cell stores 2 bits. This paper introduces for the first time the sense current recovery technique to counteract the side-leakage current effect and the differential feedback cascoded bitline control technique to minimize the complementary-bit disturbance. A 1.8-V 256-Mb 2-bit-per-cell virtual-ground flash memory employing the two techniques has been integrated using 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. These two sensing techniques are essential for the memory to achieve 49-ns initial read access and 200-MHz internal burst read access. The die size is 52 mm/sup 2/ and the cell size is 0.121 /spl mu/m/sup 2/.
Development of the Gravid Aedes Trap for the Capture of Adult Female Container-Exploiting Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

ABSTRACT Monitoring dengue vector control by sampling adult Aedes aegypti (L.) recently has been used to replace both larval and pupal surveys. We have developed and evaluated the Gravid Aedes Trap (GAT) through a sequential behavioral study. The GAT does not require electricity to function, and trapped mosquitoes are identified easily during trap inspections. The GAT concept relies on visual and olfactory cues to lure gravid Ae. aegypti and an insecticide to kill trapped mosquitoes. Gravid mosquitoes are lured to a black bucket base containing oviposition attractant (infusion) and are trapped in a translucent chamber impregnated with a pyrethroid insecticide where they are killed within 3–15 min. In semifield observations, the GAT captured a significantly higher proportion of gravid mosquitoes than the double sticky ovitrap. We also demonstrated that the visual cues of the prototype GAT-LgBF (large black base bucket with a black funnel at the top of the translucent chamber) captured a significantly higher proportion of gravid mosquitoes than the other prototypes. The visual contrast created by the addition of a white lid to the top of the black funnel significantly increased the number of captured gravid mosquitoes when compared with the GAT-LgBF in semifield trials. We conclude that the GAT is more efficient in recapturing gravid Ae. aegypti when compared with sticky ovitraps. The GAT is an effective, practical, low cost, and easily transportable trap, features that are essential in large-scale monitoring programs, particularly in areas where funding is limited.
cDNA cloning and chromosomal localization of the human and mouse isoforms of Ksp-cadherin.

Ksp-cadherin is a novel kidney-specific member of the cadherin superfamily of cell adhesion molecules. We have determined the complete cDNA coding sequences of both the human and the mouse isoforms of Ksp-cadherin. The inferred amino acid sequences of the human and mouse isoforms are 79 and 75% identical to the originally described rabbit isoform of Ksp-cadherin (Thomson et al., 1995; J. Biol. Chem. 270, 17594-17601), respectively. The relative locations of cadherin-specific sequence motifs, putative N-glycosylation sites, and characteristic protein domains are entirely conserved in all three isoforms. Multiple organ Northern analyses indicate that, as in the rabbit, both the human and the mouse Ksp-cadherin transcripts appear to have distinct kidney-specific distributions. The human Ksp-cadherin gene (CDH16) maps to chromosome 16q21-proximal 16q22. The mouse Ksp-cadherin gene (Cdh16) was localized to a highly syntenic region of distal Chromosome 8. Both the human and the mouse Ksp-cadherin genes were localized to previously identified clusters of cadherin gene sequences, consistent with the hypothesis that most cadherin family members arose by gene duplication from a single ancestral gene at a relatively early stage in the evolution of the mammalian genome.
Low‐grade gastric B‐cell lymphoma of mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT): a multifocal disease

Gastrectomy specimens from five patients following gastroscopic biopsies which showed low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma of mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) were examined by serially sectioning and paraffin wax embedding using a ‘swiss roll’ technique. This procedure allowed the construction of a map of the specimen on which the distribution of the lymphoma could be plotted. In each case confluent lymphoma was identified. In addition small foci of lymphoma consisting of 1–4 lymphoid follicles surrounded by neoplastic centrocyte‐like cells were seen. The positions of these ‘micro‐lymphomas’ were plotted on the gastrectomy maps, showing multiple foci distributed throughout the gastric mucosa. The identification of these microscopic lesions may explain the development of local relapse, often after a long disease‐free interval, in patients with gastric MALT lymphoma treated by partial gastrectomy where excision appears to have been complete. Patients treated in this way should, therefore, be followed‐up indefinitely, with regular endoscopy and gastric biopsy, in order to identify early local disease relapse.