Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conversion of xylose to ethanol by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae: importance of xylulokinase (XKS1) and oxygen availability.

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae efficiently ferments hexose sugars to ethanol, but it is unable to utilize xylose, a pentose sugar abundant in lignocellulosic materials. Recombinant strains containing genes coding for xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) from the xylose-utilizing yeast Pichia stipitis have been reported; however, such strains ferment xylose to ethanol poorly. One reason for this may be the low capacity of xylulokinase, the third enzyme in the xylose pathway. To investigate the potential limitation of the xylulokinase step, we have overexpressed the endogenous gene for this enzyme (XKS1) in S. cerevisiae that also expresses the P. stipitis genes for XR and XDH. The metabolism of this recombinant yeast was further investigated in pure xylose bioreactor cultivation at various oxygen levels. The results clearly indicated that overexpression of XKS1 significantly enhances the specific rate of xylose utilization. In addition, the XK-overexpressing strain can more efficiently convert xylose to ethanol under all aeration conditions studied. One of the important illustrations is the significant anaerobic and aerobic xylose conversion to ethanol by the recombinant Saccharomyces; moreover, this was achieved on pure xylose as a carbon. Under microaerobic conditions, 5.4 g L(-1) ethanol was produced from 47 g L(-1) xylose during 100 h. In fed-batch cultivations using a mixture of xylose and glucose as carbon sources, the specific ethanol production rate was highest at the highest aeration rate tested and declined by almost one order of magnitude at lower aeration levels. Intracellular metabolite analyses and in vitro enzyme activities suggest the following: the control of flux in a strain that overexpresses XKS1 has shifted to the nonoxidative steps of the pentose phosphate pathway (i.e., downstream of xylose 5-phosphate), and enzymatic steps in the lower part of glycolysis and ethanol formation pathways (pyruvate kinase, pyruvate decarboxylase, and alcohol dehydrogenase) do not have a high flux control in this recombinant strain. Furthermore, the intracellular ATP levels were found to be significantly lower for the XK strain compared with either the control strain under similar conditions or glucose-grown Saccharomyces. The ATP : ADP ratios were also lower for the XK strain, especially under microaerobic conditions (0.9 vs 6.4).
The Groucho-associated Phosphatase PPM1B Displaces Pax Transactivation Domain Interacting Protein (PTIP) to Switch the Transcription Factor Pax2 from a Transcriptional Activator to a Repressor*

Background: The Groucho co-repressor proteins inhibit transcription by a variety of described mechanisms. Results: PPM1B interacts with Groucho4 and is localized to DNA in a Groucho-dependent manner, and phosphatase activity is required for transcriptional silencing. Conclusion: PPM1B plays a vital role in Groucho-mediated transcriptional silencing of Pax-regulated genes. Significance: We describe a novel mechanism of Groucho-mediated transcriptional repression. Pax genes encode developmental regulatory proteins that specify cell lineages and tissues in metazoans. Upon binding to DNA through the conserved paired domain, Pax proteins can recruit both activating and repressing complexes that imprint distinct patterns of histone methylation associated with either gene activation or silencing. How the switch from Pax-mediated activation to repression is regulated remains poorly understood. In this report, we identify the phosphatase PPM1B as an essential component of the Groucho4 repressor complex that is recruited by Pax2 to chromatin. PPM1B can dephosphorylate the Pax2 activation domain and displace the adaptor protein PTIP, thus inhibiting H3K4 methylation and gene activation. Loss of PPM1B prevents Groucho-mediated gene repression. Thus, PPM1B helps switch Pax2 from a transcriptional activator to a repressor protein. This can have profound implications for developmental regulation by Pax proteins and suggests a model for imprinting specific epigenetic marks depending on the availability of co-factors.
EU hotel and restaurant sector : work and employment conditions

In 2000, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (the Foundation) carried out the third European Survey on Working Conditions. In that survey, information was collected on the working conditions, health and wellbeing of employed and self-employed persons in the 15 Member States of the European Union. The Foundation’s three surveys from the years 1990, 1995 and 2000 provide a dynamic picture of the development of a number of main characteristics in working conditions (Houtman et al, 2002). The general picture that emerged from the surveys is sufficient to set priorities, but not detailed enough to understand the reasons underlying the situation described, and the policies undertaken at various levels to deal with it. The Foundation therefore initiated research to look at the quality of work and employment in two sectors: ‘hotels and restaurants’ and ‘road transport’. The objective of these sectoral surveys was to provide a cross-sectional view of the work and employment conditions in each country. The research project also aimed to collect information on social dialogue in the sectors.
A Study of Community Events Held by Not‐for‐Profit Organizations in Australia

This research questions the role and purpose of community‐based events hosted by not‐for‐profit organizations (NFPs), particularly charities. Followed by a review of the relevant literature, open‐ended interviews were conducted with managers of several Australian charities. The findings identify the key themes of strategic tension, stakeholder engagement, competitive pressures, event structure, event analysis, and review which are likely to be of importance to managers of NFPs who are involved in community events.
Modeling of a commercial BLDC motor and control using GA-ANFIS tuned PID controller

The applications of The Brush Less Direct Current (BLDC) are increasing day by day. In order to have proper utilization of these motors and to control them effectively it's important to have proper mathematical modeling of these motors. Similarly effective control these motors are also essential to have successful application of the devices across multiple domains. This work addresses both these important aspects. A mathematical model has been derived to represent a BLDC model and it has been subsequently used to represent a commercially available BLDC motor. Its utility can be gauged from the fact different motor can be analyzed easily using the proposed model. The mathematical model was subjected to open loop and closed loop analysis to study the stability and performance. This paper also presents an approach involving Genetic Algorithm (GA) for training the ANFIS. In order to validate the approach a Simulink model having a PID controller is constructed to control the modeled BLDC. It can be observed from the results that GA-ANFIS has delivered a much improved performance when compared to traditional ANFIS.
The Latency-associated Nuclear Antigen of Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus Modulates Cellular Gene Expression and Protects Lymphoid Cells from p16 INK4A-induced Cell Cycle Arrest*

Latently infected Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes-virus (KSHV)-associated tumor cells have both endothelial and lymphoid origins and express a limited set of latent viral genes. One such gene, ORF73, encodes the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a multifunctional protein that plays roles in viral DNA replication, episome maintenance, and transcriptional regulation. LANA interacts with cellular proteins involved in transcriptional regulation such as the tumor suppressors, retinoblastoma (Rb) and p53, and RING3 family members. Although several reports about specific LANA-regulated promoters exist, only limited data are available that address how LANA expression in KSHV-infected cells globally affects cellular gene expression, thereby potentially contributing to KSHV pathogenicity. To investigate this question, we generated an Epstein-Barr virus-negative Burkitts lymphoma line that expresses LANA from a tetracycline-inducible promoter (BJAB/Tet-On/LANA), and we performed microarray-based gene expression profiling. Expression profiling at different time points post-induction revealed that 186 genes were activated or repressed over 2-fold in the presence of LANA. Of these genes, 41 are regulated in the Rb/E2F pathway, whereas 7 are related to p53 signaling. To determine whether these gene expression changes translate into LANA-dependent changes in cell cycle regulation, we overexpressed p16 INK4a, a CDK4/6 inhibitor that efficiently induces cell cycle arrest in Rb-positive cells. Under these conditions, LANA expression protects lymphoid cells from p16 INK4a-induced cell cycle arrest and induces S-phase entry.
Regulation of IFN Regulatory Factor-7 and IFN-α Production by Enveloped Virus and Lipopolysaccharide in Human Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells1

Human plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) are a major source of IFN-α upon exposure to enveloped viruses and TLR-7 and TLR-9 ligands. Although IFN regulatory factor-7 (IRF-7) is known to play an essential role in virus-activated transcription of IFN-α genes, the molecular mechanisms of IFN-α production in human PDC remain poorly understood. We and others have recently reported high constitutive levels of IRF-7 expression in PDC as compared with other PBMC. In this study, we demonstrate that both LPS and HSV up-regulate the expression of IRF-7 in PDC, and that this enhancement of IRF-7 is dependent on NF-κB activation. The NF-κB inhibitors MG132 and pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate efficiently inhibited the induction of IRF-7 by HSV or LPS, and also down-regulated the constitutive expression of IRF-7 in PDC and blocked the HSV-induced production of IFN-α. In addition, we found that nuclear translocation of IRF-7 occurred rapidly in response to HSV stimulation, but not in response to LPS, which is consistent with the stimulation of IFN-α production by virus and not by LPS. Although LPS by itself was not able to induce IFN-α production, it led to rapid up-regulation of TLR-4 on PDC and increased the magnitude and accelerated the kinetics of HSV-induced IFN-α production in PDC, providing a mechanism that might be operative in a scenario of mixed infection. In contrast to the current concept of IFN-α regulation established in cell lines, this study strongly supports the immediate availability of high constitutive levels of IRF-7 expression in PDC, and suggests an activation required for IRF-7 that contributes to IFN-α production in virus-stimulated PDC.
Immunoselection of Functional CMRF-56+ Blood Dendritic Cells from Multiple Myeloma Patients for Immunotherapy

Dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with tumor-associated antigens are a promising treatment to prevent disease relapse in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Early-phase clinical trials have shown safety, efficacy, and immunologic responses in MM, but a key issue now is the isolation of a functional, clinically relevant DC preparation. The authors have described a unique blood DC (BDC) isolation platform based on positive immunoselection with the CMRF-56 antibody. To validate this as a feasible source of BDCs for immunotherapy, the authors undertook a quantitative and functional analysis of BDCs in MM patients and healthy donors. These data show that MM patients have similar numbers of CD11c+CD16+ and CD11c+CD16- BDCs but about half the number of CD11c-CD123+ BDCs in whole blood compared with healthy donors. BDCs could be isolated by CMRF-56+ immunoselection from all MM patients tested, with similar yields and purity to healthy donors. These BDCs could be activated ex vivo with poly I:C or LPS. Furthermore, CMRF-56+ preparations could induce potent CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte responses in both MM patients and healthy donors. These data suggest that BDCs with in vitro functional integrity can be isolated from MM patients in sufficient numbers to justify a clinical trial.
Characterization of an Escherichia coli aromatic hydroxylase with a broad substrate range

The hpaB gene encoding an aromatic hydroxylase of Escherichia coli ATCC 11105, a penicillin G acylase-producing strain, has been cloned and expressed in E. coli K-12. This gene was located near the pacA gene coding for penicillin G acylase. The hydroxylase has a molecular mass of 59,000 Da, uses NADH as a cosubstrate, and was tentatively classified as a 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid hydroxylase, albeit it exhibited a rather broad substrate specificity acting on different monohydric and dihydric phenols. E. coli W, C, and B as well as Klebsiella pneumoniae M5a1 and Kluyvera citrophila ATCC 21285 (a penicillin G acylase-producing strain) but not E. coli K-12 contained sequences homologous to hpaB. Our results support the hypothesis that hpaB is a component of the 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid degradative pathway of E. coli W.
Growth strategy in entrepreneur managed small organizations - a study in auto component manufacturing organizations in India

Small business growth strategy is a function of industry structure and performance, entrepreneurial motivation, attitude, and competence of entrepreneurs. Exposure to global competition makes auto component sector a strong case for developing theory. The research based on Grounded Theory presents two patterns of theoretical framework. In ‘focused customer based growth strategy’ entrepreneurs focus on single customer. Customer relations, low cost automation, and agility are the important dimensions. In ‘multiple opportunity based growth strategy’ entrepreneurs choose data based approach to search for new opportunities, value addition and cost efficiency with technology support. They develop investment capability to establish supply chain collaboration among manufacturing bases established at various locations. The paper enhances understanding of RBV in small businesses.
Impact of Emerging Markets on Marketing: Rethinking Existing Perspectives and Practices

The core idea of this article is that five key characteristics—market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, chronic shortage of resources, unbranded competition, and inadequate infrastructure—of emerging markets are radically different from the traditional industrialized capitalist society, and they will require us to rethink the core assumptions of marketing, such as market orientation, market segmentation, and differential advantage. To accommodate these characteristics, we must rethink the marketing perspective (e.g., from differential advantage to market aggregation and standardization) and the core guiding strategy concepts (e.g., from market orientation to market development). Similarly, we must rethink issues of public policy (e.g., from compliance and crisis driven to purpose driven) and the marketing practice (e.g., from glocalization to fusion marketing).
Combined treatment with interferon alpha‐2b and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C in patients with a previous non‐response or non‐sustained response to interferon alone

Ten patients with chronic hepatitis C, six of whom had not responded and four of whom had responded in a non‐sustained fashion to interferon‐alpha treatment alone, were given interferon alpha‐2b and ribavirin in combination during 24 weeks. Interferon alpha‐2b was given subcutaneously, at a dose of 3 MU thrice weekly, together with ribavirin orally, at a dose of 1, 000‐1, 200 mg/day.
ISS-MULT: Intelligent Sample Selection for Multi-Task Learning in Question Answering

Transferring knowledge from a source domain to another domain is useful, especially when gathering new data is very expensive and time-consuming. Deep networks have been well-studied for question answering tasks in recent years; however, no prominent research for transfer learning through deep neural networks exists in the question answering field. In this paper, two main methods (INIT and MULT) in this field are examined. Then, a new method named Intelligent sample selection (ISS-MULT) is proposed to improve the MULT method for question answering tasks. Different datasets, specificay SQuAD, SelQA, WikiQA, NewWikiQA and InforBoxQA, are used for evaluation. Moreover, two different tasks of question answering - answer selection and answer triggering - are evaluated to examine the effectiveness of transfer learning. The results show that using transfer learning generally improves the performance if the corpora are related and are based on the same policy. In addition, using ISS-MULT could finely improve the MULT method for question answering tasks, and these improvements prove more significant in the answer triggering task.
An Exploratory Model for the Relevant Factors Related to the Professional Performance of the Brazilian CIO

The aim of this paper is to develop an exploratory model for the relevant factors related to the professional performance of the Brazilian CIO (Chief Information Officer). For this purpose, exploratory research was carried out using a quantitative approach. Six theoretical frameworks found in the academic literature on this issue were taken into account, which led to the development of indicators associated with the CIO's professional performance. A questionnaire was then applied via a web survey, from which answers from 111 Brazilian CIOs were collected. Thereafter, exploratory factor analysis was conducted in order to obtain a consolidated model. From this analysis, seven factors were considered relevant to the professional performance of the Brazilian CIO, namely knowledge of the business; systemic view of the organization; ability to influence the organization; technical expertise; external networking; management of information technology (IT) operation; and capacity to innovate using new information technologies. The conclusion reached is that the Brazilian CIO's skills do not differ very much from those found in CIOs in developed countries. However, some exceptions are analyzed. Lastly, the managerial and academic implications accrued from this work are set forth and the research limitations are identified, as well as further steps to be taken regarding this research stream.
A novel picoseconds optical pulse source for free-space decoy-state quantum key distribution

We report an integrated optical pulse source with repetition rate of 100 MHz and a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 80 ps. Considering the center wavelength is around 850 nm, this optical pulse source is suitable for the free-space quantum key distribution. Furthermore, the integrated design for optics and electronics make our source a promising weak coherent source for the future ground-satellite quantum communication.
Infection of Tick Cells and Bovine Erythrocytes with One Genotype of the Intracellular Ehrlichia Anaplasma marginale Excludes Infection with Other Genotypes

ABSTRACT Anaplasma marginale, a tick-borne rickettsial pathogen of cattle, is endemic in several areas of the United States. Many geographic isolates of A. marginale that occur in the United States are characterized by the major surface protein 1a, which varies in sequence and molecular weight due to different numbers of tandem repeats of 28 or 29 amino acids. Recent studies (G. H. Palmer, F. R. Rurangirwa, and T. F. McElwain, J. Clin. Microbiol. 39:631-635, 2001) of an A. marginale-infected herd of cattle in an area of endemicity demonstrated that multiple msp1α genotypes were present but that only one genotype was found per individual bovine. These findings suggested that infection of cattle with other genotypes was excluded. The present study was undertaken to confirm the phenomenon of infection exclusion of A. marginale genotypes in infected bovine erythrocytes and cultured tick cells. Two tick-transmissible isolates of A. marginale, one from Virginia and one from Oklahoma, were used for these studies. In two separate trials, cattle inoculated with equal doses of the two isolates developed infection with only one genotype. Tick cell cultures inoculated with equal doses of the two isolates became infected with only the Virginia isolate of A. marginale. When cultures were inoculated with different ratios of the Oklahoma and Virginia isolates of A. marginale, the isolate inoculated in the higher ratio became established and excluded infection with the other. When cultures with established infections of one isolate were subsequently infected with the other, only the established isolate was detected. We documented infection exclusion during initial infection in cell culture by labeling each isolate with a different fluorescent dye. After 2 days in culture, only a single isolate was detected per cell by fluorescence microscopy. Finally, when Anaplasma ovis infections were established in cultures that were subsequently inoculated with the Virginia or Oklahoma isolate of A. marginale, A. marginale infection was excluded. These studies confirm that infection exclusion occurs with A. marginale in bovine erythrocytes and tick cells, resulting in the establishment of only one genotype, and appears to be the first report of infection exclusion for Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species.
Consumer perceptions of bonus packs: an exploratory analysis

Presents an account of a study which examined consumer perceptions of bonus pack offers. A bonus pack is a manufacturer’s sales promotion technique of giving the buyer an extra quantity of a product at the usual price (e.g. an extra 6 oz free; buy four, get one free). No scholarly research on bonus packs was uncovered by the literature review. Hence, this study represents, perhaps, one of the earliest scholarly works on bonus packs. The research tested two offers of Vaseline Intensive Care skin lotion (one offer was of 80 percent, the other of 60 percent more free). Consumer responses ‐ their belief in the offers (quantities and prices claimed), their perceptions of the manufacturer and of the value of the deal, and their purchase intentions ‐ were measured.The measures were further analyzed by types of user (light versus heavy) and buyer (regular versus infrequent). Discusses managerial implications of the findings. For example, one finding was that bonus pack promotions lack credence. Offers suggestions on how to boost the credibility of bonus packs.
Predictive factors of success in neurofeedback training for children with ADHD

ABSTRACT Introduction: Neurofeedback (NF) training aims the enhancement of self-regulation over brain activities. While it is largely recognized as an effective treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the existence of non-learners has also been reported. The present study explored pre-training assessment indices that could predict learners prior to NF training. Methods: Twenty-two children with ADHD participated in slow cortical potential (SCP) NF training and completed pre- and post-training assessments. Participants were classified into learners or non-learners based on their progress in the SCP regulation, and pre-training indices that differentiate the two groups were examined by decision tree analysis. Results and Discussion: The learner rate in NF training was 45.5%. Learners were predicted by pre-training cognitive and neurophysiological measures regarding Stroop tasks, which suggested relatively intact executive function as their characteristics. Given that NF training is not universally effective for children with ADHD, further studies are necessary to establish application criteria.