Enrichment in conservative amino acid changes among fixed and standing missense variations in slowly evolving proteins

The process of molecular evolution has many elements that are not yet fully understood. Evolutionary rates are known to vary among protein coding and noncoding DNAs, and most of the observed changes in amino acid or nucleotide sequences are assumed to be non-adaptive by the neutral theory of molecular evolution. However, it remains unclear whether fixed and standing missense changes in slowly evolving proteins are more or less neutral compared to those in fast evolving genes. Here, based on the evolutionary rates as inferred from identity scores between orthologs in human and Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta), we found that the fraction of conservative substitutions between species was significantly higher in their slowly evolving proteins. Similar results were obtained by using four different methods of scoring conservative substitutions, including three that remove the impact of substitution probability, where conservative changes require fewer mutations. We also examined the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by using the 1000 Genomes Project data and found that missense SNPs in slowly evolving proteins also had a higher fraction of conservative changes, especially for common SNPs, consistent with more non-conservative substitutions and hence stronger natural selection for SNPs, particularly rare ones, in fast evolving proteins. These results suggest that fixed and standing missense variants in slowly evolving proteins are more likely to be neutral

Authority of Singapore in Arresting Indonesian Suspected of Perperating Transboundary Haze Pollution

AbstrakTerulangnya kebakaran hutan dan lahan di Indonesia yang mengakibatkan polusi asap lintas batas menyebabkan Singapura frustasi, sehingga mendorong pemerintah Singapura untuk membentuk suatu aturan yang memuat yurisdiksi ekstrateritorial di dalamnya.  Aturan tersebut dikenal dengan Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014. Berdasarkan peraturan tersebut Singapura memiliki yurisdiksi mengadili pelaku pembakaran hutan dan lahan yang terjadi di Indonesia. Dimana pada tahun 2016 Singapura menangkap WNI terduga pelaku pembakaran hutan dan lahan yang terjadi pada 2015. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui kompetensi Singapura dalam menangkap WNI terduga pelaku pembakaran hutan dan lahan yang mengakibatkan polusi asap lintas batas negara ditinjau dari kaidah Hukum Internasional. Kata Kunci: Polusi Asap Lintas Batas, Implementasi THPA, Kedaulatan AbstractThe re-occurrence of haze pollution arising from forest and land fires in Indonesia has led to frustration in Singaporean side, which in turns led the Singaporean government to stipulate a rule that contained extraterritorial jurisdiction within its provisions. This rule became known as the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act of 2014. Under these regulations Singapore has jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of forest and land fires in Indonesia. As a form of THPA implementation, in 2016 Singapore arrested Indonesian citizens who allegedly burned down forest and land in 2015. This study is intended to determine Singapore's competency in arresting Indonesian citizens suspected of perpetrating forest and land burning which leads to transboundary haze pollution in terms of International law.  Key Word: Transboundary Haze Pollution, Ratification, THPA Implementation, Sovereignty

Do Girls Really Outperform Boys in Educational Outcomes?

The reversing gender gap observed in many countries led to a heated debate to explain the persistent gap in academia and other top fields despite the reversal. This paper aims at analyzing the gender gap in education outcomes from different evaluation and exam techniques and gender gap in outcomes of college applications using Turkish administrative data. In Turkey, university applications are centralized based on a standardized test. Assignments of applicants depend on an assignment score which is calculated as a weighted sum of standardized test score and high school GPA with a little contribution from the latter. I find considerable gender gap in favor of females in high school GPAs which is a long term evaluation of students based on every written exam during high school while the female outperformance is not as obvious in standardized test scores which comes from a stressful 3 hours multiple choice test. I also analyze the gender gap in college application outcomes and show that females are less likely to be assigned to a top major conditional on test scores. These findings contribute to the discussion of gender gap in performance in education suggesting that evaluation systems might have gender biased impacts on students and underrepresentation of females in top fields and/or universities can not be explained only by mean differences in test scores and test score distributions

Law Number 9 of 2017 as Automatic Financial Information Exchange and Comparison with Malaysia

Taxpayer data and information from banking and finance institution could be guidance on any development. Therefore, it could be a corrective act to do the law enforcement on increasing Inland Revenue. Financial information exchange regarded to tax interests, besides by demanding way also could automatically way done (Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information/AEol). Indonesia commitment was manifested by Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement signed after AEOI on 3rd June 2015. Indonesia agreed to start the financial information exchange automatically on September 2018. The followed-up Indonesia government commitment was on 8th May 2017. It had approved the financial information access no.1 2017 legislations as to tax interests. Then, one year later was set to be no.9 2017 legislations.Keywords : Automatic, Exchange, Financial Accoun

Smokers’ Engagement Behavior on Facebook: Verbalizing and Visual Expressing the Smoking Cessation Process

The “processes of change” and “motivational language” are common in smoker Facebook users’ comments under smoking cessation support contents. Smokers can combine this verbalization of the smoking cessation process with visual expression when they use comments and Facebook reactions at the same time. The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between processes of change, motivational language, and the Facebook reaction buttons. A total of 821 smokers’ comments were analyzed in the current study (n = 821), which responded to image-based smoking cessation support contents. The processes of change and the motivational language used in the investigated comments were identified. These linguistic categories were compared with the usage of reaction buttons. The Facebook users who used the “Haha” reaction button wrote a significantly higher proportion of sustain talk than those who used the “Like” or “Love” reaction buttons. The Facebook users who combined the comment and “Love” reaction wrote significantly more change talk than those who did not utilize these buttons. We suggest that the “Haha” reaction may be a negative indicator, the “Like” reaction may be a neutral indicator, and the “Love” reaction may be a positive engagement indicator in terms of the smoking cessation process during Facebook-based interventions. These results may highlight how to evaluate Facebook reactions relating to smoking cessation support contents

Modelling competences and anticipating the future competence needs in the forest sector

This explorative study examined practices of competence modelling in the forest sector organisations and how organisations anticipate changes in competence needs in the future. Semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=10) were conducted amongst forest sector experts in Finland and data was analysed by thematic analysis. The findings showed that the practices of modelling competences were diverse, most frequently used ones being superior-subordinate review discussions and quantitative competence surveys. In addition to these formal systems, informal modelling, especially on the team level and in smaller companies was also frequent. Organisations used competence modelling for several human resources functions, such as appraisal, motivation and promotion of employees. Surprisingly hiring and compensation functions were not mentioned. Perceptions related to competence modelling were generally speaking positive. The most important challenges were the lack of further actions and sometimes the extraordinary burden to the employees. When anticipating the future, the experts interviewed mentioned several commonly recognised trends, e.g., development of information technology, fragmentation of working life and structural changes in labour markets. All these require more generic competences related to information processing and personal self-management, especially respondents highlighted the importance of self-awareness skills. It is concluded that several useful practices for competence modelling already exist and that present study provides a basis for further quantitative further study.Peer reviewe

THE EFFECT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICIES FOR PROCESSING TOMATOES ON THE DEMAND FOR PESTICIDES

In California, acceptance sampling is used to monitor the quality of processing tomatoes delivered by growers to processors. A proposal to change the current quality assurance policy was recently put forth to reduce the growersÂ’' incentive to use pesticides. In this article we examine the effect of alternative quality assurance policies on profit-maximizing growerÂ’s' demand for pesticides. The results indicate that the demand for pesticides is sensitive to changes in the quality assurance policy and that the proposed policy would reduce the optimal level of pesticide use on processing tomatoes. Disregarding the impacts of quality assurance policy may be the reason that the demand for pesticides has been underestimated so often in the past.Crop Production/Industries,