Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vitro Murein (Peptidoglycan) Synthesis by Dimers of the Bifunctional Transglycosylase-Transpeptidase PBP1B from Escherichia coli*

PBP1B is a major bifunctional murein (peptidoglycan) synthase catalyzing transglycosylation and transpeptidation reactions in Escherichia coli. PBP1B has been shown to form dimers in vivo. The KD value for PBP1B dimerization was determined by surface plasmon resonance. The effect of the dimerization of PBP1B on its activities was studied with a newly developed in vitro murein synthesis assay with radioactively labeled lipid II precursor as substrate. Under conditions at which PBP1B dimerizes, the enzyme synthesized murein with long glycan strands (>25 disaccharide units) and with almost 50% of the peptides being part of cross-links. PBP1B was also capable of synthesizing trimeric muropeptide structures. Tri-, tetra-, and pentapeptide compounds could serve as acceptors in the PBP1B-catalyzed transpeptidation reaction.
Assessing Public Expenditures in Small Towns

Large, urban governments often provide a tremendous variety of public goods, while the expenditures of small communities usually address basic needs such as fire protection and road maintenance. However, certain small local governments dedicate significant public resources to recreation, culture, and public health services, among others. This research examines the variation in services provided by these smaller, often overlooked governments. Differences are explained, at least partially, by various community characteristics, location, and capacity. For the millions of people who reside in these communities, the findings illustrate why variations exist and what, potentially, can be done to alter expenditure levels.
Age and risk for depression among the elderly: a meta-analysis of the published literature

Objective The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between age and risk for depression among the old and the oldest old. Method MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library database were used to identify potential studies. The studies were divided into cross-sectional and longitudinal subsets. For each study, the numbers of the total participants, cases (for cross-sectional study), or incident cases (for longitudinal study) of depression in each age group were extracted and entered into Review Manager 4.2 software. Qualitative meta-analyses of cross-sectional studies and of longitudinal studies were performed. For prevalence and incidence rates of depression, odds risk (OR) and relative risk (RR) were calculated, respectively. Results The qualitative meta-analyses showed that, compared with younger participants (above vs. below 65 years, above vs. below 70 years, above vs. below 75 years, and above vs. below 80 years), older age groups had a significantly higher risk for depression. (All of the ORs and RRs were significant.) Compared with participants aged 55–89, those aged above 90 years had no higher risk for depression. (Neither the OR nor the RR was significant.) Conclusions Despite the methodological limitations of this meta-analysis, older age appears to be an important risk factor for depression in the general elderly population (aged below 80 years), but not in the oldest population (aged above 85 years).
Behavioral Patterns of Fast Flux Service Networks

We present behavioral pattern analysis of fast flux service networks (FFSNs) using our database of FFSNs collected over a period of 12 months with our real-time fast flux network detection algorithm [1]. FFSNs exploit a network of compromised machines (zombies) for illegal activities such as spam campaigns, phishing scams and malware delivery using DNS record manipulation techniques. Our results, which build upon our analysis results [2], show that such networks share common lifecycle characteristics, and form clusters based on size, growth and type of malicious behavior. In particular, we introduce a social network connectivity metric, and show that (Command and Control and phishing), (malware and spam botnets) have similar scores with this metric.
The sense of time in Open Metering System

Nowadays, the energy management is a critical task for suppliers and network operators. A wide use of smart meters may improve the quality of service provided by suppliers thanks to the distributed measuring and controlling capabilities. Recently, the smart metering covers not only electrical distribution, but also other commodities such as gas, water and heat. The German standard OMS (Open Metering System) aims to connect in the infrastructure all the different meters belonging to the same system. In the paper, the advantages of the smart meters are examined and the architecture of OMS network is briefly described. The time requirements of typical meter applications are not strict. However, the estimation of the quality of local power network in a building would require a more accurate acquisition system, in which the time of the meters is synchronized below the millisecond. A characterization of the drift between the clocks of two M-bus meters is required to identify the main limits of the native OMS synchronization mechanism. The relative drift is 8 ppm, which means after 24 hours their time references could differ of 0.7 s.
Nerve growth factor increases the synthesis and release of acetylcholine and the expression of vesicular acetylcholine transporter in primary cultured rat embryonic septal cells

Acetylcholine (ACh) is synthesized by choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in the cytoplasm of cholinergic nerve terminals and transported into synaptic vesicles by vesicular ACh transporter (VAChT). The genes encoding ChAT and VAChT are colocalized within the genome, and their products are known to be coregulated by various neurotrophic factors. In the present study, nerve growth factor (NGF; 100 ng/ml) was shown to enhance expression of VAChT and ChAT mRNA in primary cultured rat embryonic septal cells. By using a radioimmunoassay, we also found that NGF increased both neuronal content and spontaneous release of ACh, which were first detected on day 2 of culture and time‐dependently increased up to day 10. Stimulated release of ACh elicited by high K+ (50 mM KCl) was also significantly greater in NGF‐treated cells than in control cells. NGF enhanced immunoreactivity to antiserum against VAChT, indicating that the augmented responses were due to, at least in part, increased expression of VAChT protein. In contrast, the numbers of immunocytochemically positive cells were unaffected. Thus, NGF appears to augment ACh synthesis, its transport into synaptic vesicles, and its subsequent release. The data also suggest that NGF facilitates growth and development of cholinergic neurons, but not their survival. J. Neurosci. Res. 57:381–387, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rent Control Dilemma Comeback in Egypt’s Governance: A Hedonic Approach

This paper applies hedonic pricing models to estimate the relationship between housing prices and characteristics and determines the implicit amount of housing consumed by a typical consumer by tenure type. The hedonic price approach is used to set up quality-adjusted price indices using household survey data. By estimating a semi-log hedonic function, the results showed that uncontrolled rent is higher on average than controlled units by around 9 percent after controlling for quality, while about 18 percent of the discrepancy in nominal rents is due to the fact that rent control is in effect. Therefore, the underpriced units drive out affordable units because of over-pricing at the higher end of the market and underpricing at the lower end of the market.
The Rare Disease Assumption: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

In epidemiologic studies, researchers often calculate the relative risk or the odds ratio in order to quantify associations between a disease and a covariate. For decades, epidemiologists have utilized the “rare disease assumption” in order to simplify calculations by treating the odds ratio and the relative risk as approximately equal. In genetic epidemiology, the rare disease assumption is frequently made under various genetic conditions. However, in the context of genetic epidemiology, this assumption may merely be a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition. Thus relying on the rare disease assumption may lead to unintended consequences including, but not limited to, misrepresented power levels, inflated Type I error rates, and increased bias of estimators. I explore various genetic scenarios through case studies toward the goal of defining circumstances under which the rare disease assumption is sufficient and circumstances under which the rare disease assumption is merely necessary. These case studies show that the rare disease assumption can sometimes leads to good results, sometimes to bad results, and sometimes to ugly results. In particular, I explore three problems that are split into three sections based on the articles which inspired the discussion of these problems. The first problem concerns testing for association between a binary disease and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker using case-control data. Specifically, I consider data simulated from case/control probabilities derived based on the rare disease assumption and data simulated from case/control probabilities derived independently of the rare disease assumption. The power analysis based on the simulation study will show that association testing methods generally have higher power when data are simulated independently of the rare disease assumption, regardless of whether the underlying disease is rare or common. The second problem deals with Hardy-Weinberg testing for a population by testing for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in controls only, as is customary in genetic epidemiology. If few individuals in a population have a disease, then the control group should be almost equivalent to the entire
Reducing Bureaucratic Corruption: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on What Works

Abstract This article offers the first comprehensive review of the interdisciplinary state of knowledge regarding anti-corruption policies, with a particular focus on reducing corruption among civil servants. Drawing on the work of economists, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, we examine seven policy categories: (1) rewards and penalties; (2) monitoring; (3) restructuring bureaucracies; (4) screening and recruiting; (5) anti-corruption agencies; (6) educational campaigns; and (7) international agreements. Notably, rigorous empirical evaluation is lacking for the majority of commonly prescribed anti-corruption policies. Nevertheless, we find growing evidence of the effectiveness of policies based on monitoring, including anti-corruption audits and e-governance. In addition, adequate civil service wages seem to be a necessary but insufficient condition for control of corruption. An emerging skepticism regarding the effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies also is apparent in the literature. We conclude with broader lessons drawn from our review, such as the recognition that when corruption is a systemic problem, it cannot be treated in the long term with individual-level solutions.
Agricultural resources and development priorities of the municipality of Stara Pazova.

This paper examines the agricultural potentials of Stara Pazova, and consequently defnes development priorities in this area. The aim at the research is to assess the real possibilities for improvement on agriculture Municipality. The analysis is focused on: knowledge transfer and innovation, agriculture technical equipment, warehouse and fnishing capacities in agriculture, processing of agricultural products and the vision and development priorities over agriculture Municipality. The research results show that the improvement to the competitiveness of the agricultural sector of Stara Pazova requires the implementation of adequate policy measures and projects related to the improvement to human resources, higher level of processing of agricultural and food products, as well as better agricultural technical equipment agricultural producers. Activities in this area include primarily higher correlation science and practice across the reorganized agricultural station, extension services, home service , agricultural cooperatives and other associations of farmers; development and implementation of new knowledge and skills of farmers through advice, training, seminars, courses; support young farmers in the modernization of farms. All projects in this feld must be based on adequate state support and coordinated efforts of the public and private sectors.
General Implementation of the Ant colony optimization on .NET platform

The paper presents an appropriate tool for testing and tuning algorithms based on the Ant colony optimization methods. Setting up a set of parameters of these methods is an essential and also very complex issue and in this way could be the presented implementation very beneficial. Suggested implementation depicted how to encapsulate mathematical algorithm into an generalized instrument which can be used for testing and evaluating all required inputs and moreover be user-friendly as much as possible. The implementation is built up on the . NET framework using all of its features as object oriented architecture and functional programming which can be very handy in practical experiments.
Beyond the Career Break. A Study of Professional and Managerial Women Returning to Work after Having a Child.

AUTHOR Hirsh, Wendy; And Others TITLE Beyond the Career Break. A Study of Professional and Managerial Women Returning to Work after Having a Child. INSTITUTION Sussex Univ., Brighton (England). Inst. of Manpower Studies. REPORT NO ISBN-1-85184-146-6 PUB DATE Oct 92 NOTE 164p. AVAILABLE FROM BEBC Distribution, 15 Albion Close, Parkstone, Poole BH12 3LL, England, United Kingdom (24 British pounds). PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143)
Risk Factors for the Development of Neck and Upper Limb Pain in Adolescents

Study Design. A prospective, repeated measures cohort study with high school students was conducted in Montreal, Canada. Objective. To determine the incidence of neck and upper limb pain and associated risk factors in a cohort of adolescents. Summary of Background Data. Neck and upper limb pain is frequent in adolescents and may be associated with repetitive motion from certain activities such as playing music, working, and engaging in sports activities. Methods. For this study, 502 students in the seventh to ninth grades in three schools were assessed. Data were collected at three times 6 months apart over a 12-month period. Students responded to a questionnaire addressing musculoskeletal health and lifestyle factors and were measured for height and weight. Neck or upper limb pain occurring at least once a week in the preceding 6 months was defined as the outcome. Multivariate methods were used to model the repeated measures dichotomous outcome as a function of engaging in physical activity, working, or playing a musical instrument, adjusted for covariates. Results. The cumulative annual incidence of neck and upper limb pain was 28.4%. The risk factors for neck and upper limb pain were working (adjusted odds ratio, 1.89; 95% confidence interval, 1.11–3.32) and lower mental health score (adjusted odds ratio, 1.68; 95% confidence interval, 1.19–2). Students involved in childcare were at a higher risk for the development of pain (adjusted odds ratio, 2.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.18–4.29). Conclusions. Neck and upper limb pain is common in teenagers. Sports involvement and music participation were not risk factors for the development of neck and upper limb pain. However, pain was more likely to develop in adolescents who worked than in students who had a lower mental health score.
The role of postoperative radiotherapy after resection of single brain metastases.

To assess the value of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) after complete resection of a single brain metastasis we reviewed the records of 98 patients who had elective craniotomy between 1978 and 1985. Seventy-nine patients received postoperative WBRT (Group A) and 19 patients no radiotherapy (RT) (Group B). Neurological relapse was designated as local (i.e., at the site of the original metastasis) or distant (i.e., elsewhere in the brain). Postoperative WBRT significantly prolonged the time to any neurological relapse (P = 0.034) with a 1-year recurrence rate of 22% in Group A and 46% in Group B patients; however, it did not specifically control either local or distant cerebral recurrence. Recurrence of metastatic brain disease was not affected by location of the original lesion; however, meningeal relapse occurred in 38% of cerebellar lesions, but only in 4.7% of supratentorial metastases (P = 0.003). The total radiation dose or fractionation scheme of RT did not affect survival nor time to neurological relapse. The median survival was 20.6 and 14.4 months for Groups A and B, respectively (not statistically different). Forty-eight percent of Group A and 47% of Group B patients survived for 1 year or longer; however, 11% of patients who had received RT and survived 1 year developed severe radiation-induced dementia. All patients with radiation-related cerebral damage received hypo-fractionated RT with high daily fractions as commonly designed for rapid palliation of macroscopic brain metastases. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Fertility and Mothers' Labor Supply: New Evidence Using Time-to-Conception

We analyze the impact of children on their mothers' labor market outcomes in the UK. We use timeto-conception of the first child as an exogenous variation in the probability of having more children. We find that having more children decreases the propensity to work in long part-time jobs but does not reduce participation for high- and intermediate-skilled mothers. For low skilled women, the impact on participation is large and negative. We show that the selection into having a second child is positive for for low-skilled mothers and negative for high-skilled and intermediate-skilled mothers. Women most attached to the labor market are also those that tend to have only one child among highand intermediate-skilled women. The reverse is true for low-skilled women: those least attached to the labor market are also less likely to have a second child. This appears to be driven by unobserved attributes that negatively affect both labor market outcomes and the likelihood to remain in a relationship with the father of the first child, which in turn negatively affects the probability to have a second child
Tumor lymphangiogenesis correlates with lymph node metastasis and clinicopathologic parameters in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Lymphatic vessel density (LVD) and microvessel density (MVD) are important parameters for assessing the malignant potential of tumors and patient survival. In this report, the authors defined LVD as the density of D2‐40‐positive lymphatic vessels and MVD as the density of CD105‐positive microvessels per unit area of tissue. It was reported previously that vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF‐C) is a major modulator of LVD and MVD. The objectives of this study were to clarify the clinical and prognostic significance of both LVD and MVD in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to elucidate the lymphangiogenic and angiogenic activities of VEGF‐C in cancer tissues.
A Coronin7 Homolog with Functions in Actin-driven Processes*

Dictyostelium discoideum Coronin7 (DdCRN7) together with human Coronin7 (CRN7) and Pod-1 of Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans belong to the coronin family of WD-repeat domain-containing proteins. Coronin7 proteins are characterized by two WD-repeat domains that presumably fold into two β-propeller structures. DdCRN7 shares highest homology with human CRN7, a protein with roles in membrane trafficking. DdCRN7 is present in the cytosol and accumulates in cell surface projections during movement and phago- and pinocytosis. Cells lacking CRN7 have altered chemotaxis and phagocytosis. Furthermore, loss of CRN7 affects the infection process by the pathogen Legionella pneumophila and allows a more efficient internalization of bacteria. To provide a mechanism for CNR7 action, we studied actin-related aspects. We could show that CRN7 binds directly to F-actin and protects actin filaments from depolymerization. CRN7 also associated with F-actin in vivo. It was present in the Triton X-100-insoluble cytoskeleton, colocalized with F-actin, and its distribution was sensitive to drugs affecting the actin cytoskeleton. We propose that the CRN7 role in chemotaxis and phagocytosis is through its effect on the actin cytoskeleton.
EURO 2016 Predictions Using Team Rating Systems

In this study we employ several rating systems to generate predictions for the outcome of 2016 European Championships in association football. To this end, we first estimate probabilities of match results between all competing nations using the rating systems. Secondly, via Monte Carlo simulations we compute probabilities of advancing past a given stage of the tournament. The approach was developed for the Euro 2016 Prediction Competition organized within Sport Analytics Workshop at ECML/PKDD 2016.
Corporate Social Responsibility Stages of Transformation, Drivers and Dimensional Models: A Review

This paper reviewed the three stages of CSR transformation from philanthropy, regulated/beyond philanthropy, to instrumental/Strategic stage. The first stage is voluntarism or fully altruistic in nature and the second stage is shaped by a form of CSR that is regulated while the final stage is the utilisation of CSR to achieve organisational objectives. For developing countries their CSR activities are a bit regulated but mostly tend to be altruistic with few exceptions of instrumental CSR. Similarly some major drivers to CSR in developing countries are identified and explained, they include; religious and cultural influences, corporate image and reputation, bridging governance gaps, pressure from stakeholders, conformity with international standards, abiding by regulations and response to disasters. The last part of this paper touched on models explaining the priory placement between different CSR dimensions. Three models were reviewed and the universal model was the most preferred because of highlighting the factors to be considered before prioritisation of responsibility and hence the reduction of vagueness or ambiguities present in both the Carroll’s and Visser’s models.
From role models to nations in need of advice: Norway and Sweden under the OECD’s magnifying glass

Abstract By analysing five separate OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment practices with Norway and Sweden as cases, our study illustrates different ways in which a specific international educational reasoning is blended into more context-based national education policies and, as such, works in parallel with internal reforms and agendas. It is evident that an overarching narrative promotes the importance of coherent and integrated systems of evaluation and assessment in order to strengthen social and political endeavours for equity, quality and achievements. The parallel mix of OECD discourses and national discourses creates a combined narrative in which evaluations and assessments appear natural, self-evident and rational as well as highly adaptable to national settings. The study shows that national vertical and/or horizontal developments are intertwined with the OECD policy recommendations, which are quite general in character. In a continuing process of uploading and downloading, within different contexts, policies are elaborated and recontextualised. Evaluations and assessments are part of a contemporary rational paradigm for mapping and promoting performance in national educational systems – what we identify as a comparative curriculum code.